Sanitation For All
Ashoka Fellow Jack Sim, and founder of the World Toilet Organization, is making a difference, one toilet at a time.
He's transforming the sanitation sector by providing clean, safe, and convenient toilets.
Chat with Jack about his experiences, challenges and vision. Share your own insights and outlooks.
Comments
Hello Everyone,
There are 2.5 billion people in the world without access to proper sanitation. Sanitation issues can be much better resolved by using market mechanism instead of relying on donations.
I would like to get in touch with all parties that can form a community tackling this issue. Technology fellows are important, and we also need people with experience in Bottom Of Pyramid business in micro-credit , micro-consignment, distribution, sanitation and water promotion, training, successful business models, design, etc.
The Singapore government is interested to create a center for BoP Hub and so those fellows doing anything related to Bottom of Pyramid can contact me.
An integrated approach with sanitation, water, housing, healthcare, education, livelihood, lifestyle etc can mean we approach the poverty issues in an integrated manner through multi-discipline solutions approach. This also means we can together solve several issues in cheaper, faster and better ways when pooling resources give us grand economy of scale in bulk buying, design, sale and distribution.
Please start speaking to me here as well as through my email jacksim@worldtoilet.org
I believe that through sharing best practices and designs, technologies, we can make much synergies if we do it at global scale instead of country, region or village level.
I also hope that Lemelson Foundation can be interested to support such an approach to kick-start by convening a face meeting later, once we can identify who are the players in this group. We'll do as much on-line as possible for the time being.
Hi Jack, another prospect for your community that will look at taking a market-based and integrated approached to scaling-up sanitation from the Changemakers community is Moses Odhiambo's "Community Involvement in Ecological Sanitation and Safe Water Supply Activities." His project has sparked a discussion about toilets and sanitation.
Hi Jack, this is a really exciting idea! There are several Ashoka Fellows in Latin America currently working on these type of inititives. There is a Fellow in Peru who is making significant change through a market driven strategy and I would love to introduce you to him.
This is a link to his Ashoka profile. Let me know if you are interested and I will put you in contact.
http://www.ashoka.org/fellow/3732
cheers
Hi, Could you just briefly explain what "Bottom of the Pyramid" refers to for our community members who are unfamilair with the term. Thanks!
The Bottom of Pyramid refers to the population of the world, about 3 to 4 billion living below the USD 2 a day poverty line. These people have not been included in our formal economy and has little or no access to capital, opportunities, products and services ( including government services). Our business world has been focusing on serving the 2 billion rich and middle-class people producing ore and more to sell to them until they suffers over-consumption, environmental deterioration and obesity. Now that they've max-out credit cards, max-out loans, max-out their cupboard space, max-out their time for consuming, we have reach saturation point and the world economy ( together with other financial causes) went into collapse recently. The businesses which rely on the rich and middle-class suddenly need to look for new customers. The Poor is the New Customer for the world to supply to. Now is the INFLECTION POINT for the world to reach out to the bottom of pyramid ( BoP ) marketplace. I've convinced several Singapore bureaucrats the great potential of the BoP marketplace and that Singapore's history of turning a third world country into a first world country is a strong case for replication world-wide. The Singapore government is interested in trade and not charity. So this for-profit business BoP Hub idea still excites them. The absolute efficiency of the Singapore government is handling any issues is well-known. It will be at its best if it engages entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs to drive the marketplace. Status is these bureaucrats needs ammunitions to convince their decision makers to invest in this sector. Herein is required a learning meeting for them. I think if we can catch a series of Top Performing fellows to join this group, we can start moving fast by showing them the success models. Ideally, it could include fellows in BoP micro-credit, healthcare, housing, education, etc. There are schemes for them to set up office in Singapore as well but that is only if they need to. I can be their on-line secretariat for the initial stages. By grouping these fellows, we can integrate solutions and offer comprehensive approach in a cheaper, faster and better manner. Off hand, I think David Green ( extreme affordability Design), Greg van Kirk ( micro-consignment), Oltre ( micro-credit), Path ( healthcare), David Kuria ( IKO Toilets), Trevor Mulaudzi ( Clean Shop), Waste Concern ( waste treatment), Isaac Duriaye ( DMT Portable Toilets), BRAC ( total solutions), Grameen ( phone and micro-credit), TATA ( Nano transport and housing), Sulabh International ( Public toilets/ liberating lower caste), ... I saw 371 Ashoka Fellows under economics category, 321 under Education, 246 under Environment, and 295 under Health. If these felows can be mobilized into a BoP Hub concept, this can be such a powerful tool, engaging fellows, businesses, government, in a very synergistic manner. Please comment on my idea.
Hi Jack,
Your idea sounds very interesting! When referring to the bottom of the period, do you find that most BOP people and consumers are rural or urban? Or does it depend on the country? If there's mix of both rural and urban BOP consumers, do you find that the strategies and solutions vary greatly?
You may also want to connect with this fellow: Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya from India. He lead a similar dicussion on Rural consumer protection and innovation here:
http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/ConsumerProtectionDiscussion
His personal Changemakers bio: http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/user/11139
I'm looking forward to learning more about your work and seeing this discussion unfold. Thanks for your insights!
All the best,
Katica
As I was reading the above about the BOP one thing really jumped out at me. While we talk a lot about systems level changes, we often gravitate toward the solar leaders, the "hero" if you will, who will lead us to "systems change victory." Many people are starting to wonder if the age of the "hero" as a singular person is fading and the star of a more empowered-groups-of-individuals is rising. Wired had a fascinating article on the re-invention of socialism which lends itself to the idea of a group leading itself. What does this have to do with System change & the BOP? As the digital tools to self organize proliferate, it seems that what we now consider the BOP may be able to exert more influence than the "heros" of the past, and that those "heros" become "champions" and "voices" to a greater and greater degree. I think Ashoka Fellows like yourself play this role and are often ahead of the times. I also think that the market mechanism, as the government of Singapore points out, remains a compelling argument for working together and working smarter, while rewarding people corporately and individuallly. Revenue generation and wealth creation can and do have positive social impact when applied humanely with consideration for others and the environment. I'd definately like to see other fellows working in this area to join. If you reach out to them I belive that would be the most compelling way to go about it, but we are happy to help. A pleasure to chat- RQB
Hi Jack,
Thank you for sharing with us! If I remember correctly, I believe I heard you speak at an Ashoka event in Johannesburg a couple years ago - very inspirational.
In any case, your comments about businesses positioning themselves to BoP populations got me thinking about Design for the Other 90% (http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/) - which you may be interested to check out, if you haven't already.
Thanks again for sharing, and I'm looking forward to reading more of the discussion as it unfolds here.
Hi, Jack. This organization, Slum Networking, which won the Changemakers "Tapping Local Innovation: Unclogging The Water And Sanitation Crisis" last year might be of interest to you. They are addressing just the issues you are talking about here.
Social Edge - one of Ashoka's Changemakers Network Partners, has an interview with Jack that you can check out: http://www.socialedge.org/blogs/global-x/jack-sim-world-toilet-organization/.
They also have a section on Water & Sanitation that contains lots of interesting info: http://www.socialedge.org/features/issue-areas/water_scarcity
Hi Jack!
In your experience, what would be the main recommendations that you would give to someone who wants to start their own social enterprise?
Thank you!
Paula
Hi Jack,
It's easy to overlook the widespread sanitation issues affecting many BOP societies, and I'm glad to see this issue being brought to light in this forum. I recently read an article about a pill containing zinc that dramatically decreases the amount of diarrhea-related deaths. Given your experience, I'm wondering what your thoughts are on the impact of this medicine, and others to improve sanitation issues in developing countries?
Thank you for your insight,
Kaylena Bray