This is so true all over the world… the waste of human potential is the greatest waste

Via EEtimes and DangerousPrototypes

Eight hospitals reduced the number of deaths from surgery by more than 40% by using a checklist that helps doctors and nurses avoid errors, according to a report released online today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Surgeons could save lives, $20B by using checklist

1) Scale. How big is the global economy relative to the global ecosystem?
2) Stress development over growth. That is, make the economy better at satisfying human needs, not simply bigger.
3) Make prices tell the ecological truth.
4) Account for nature’s services.
5) The precautionary principle. This is just the age-old wisdom of “first, do no harm” and “look before you leap,” but applied to public policy toward new products (like chemicals) and technologies that could pose serious risk.
6) Commons management.
7) Value women.

She looked for a solution and launched Build Change to build earthquake-resistant houses in developing countries and change construction practices permanently so that homeowners in seismically active developing countries can sleep at night.

Very insightful approach to developmental issues…

“The aid system is broken,” says Ashraf Ghani in this powerful, reform-oriented talk. He discusses how to mobilize capital for state-building; why technical assistance fails; and why classic economic theory proved useless in Afghanistan, which is “dominated by the drug economy and a mafia.” He emphasizes the necessity of investment (“A dollar in private investment is equal to 20 dollars of aid”) and design ingenuity to rebuild broken states. And he offers a blueprint: the 10 key functions that a state should perform, from providing infrastructure to enforcing the rule of law.

The bigger question people have been trying to answer for decades is
How can developing countries prosper when so many needs are fighting for scarce resources? Where do we start? Widespread unemployment at a time when industries can’t find talent, environmental degradation, public health & sanitation, illiteracy, malnutrition, gender and social discrimination, overburdened public infrastructure, energy scarcity, the list seems endless and problems unsurmountable. But all is not lost… there are some glimmers of hope: vibrant democracy, entrepreneurial acumen, progressive judiciary, developed financial institutions, burgeoning middle class, commendable savings rate

GramIT brings tech-services jobs to rural areas—and transforms villagers’ lives

That said, there are some interesting findings from the article are that even those living at the bottom of the pyramid try to keep money for life events, sending kids to school, etc.

The very poor even seem to have some consumer power. For example, in the countries where free public schools are especially bad, some parents scrape together the resources to send the children to private schools. The teachers may be largely unskilled themselves, but at least they show up.

An interesting perspective to doing business at the bottom of the pyramid is this article from The Telegraph- Why the Indian retail hype doesn’t wash