Subject: Solar power for developing countries.

The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world's joy.

Henry Ward Beecher

I see development aid as simply the act of helping fellow citizens who have had the misfortune of being born into poverty seek a better life for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Admittedly, the "aid industry" has had it's ups and downs. It has been paternalistic during colonial times, self-serving in the budding days of international trade, inextricably tied to religious conviction, and arguably misguided during the green revolution, but aid has also done immeasurable good for millions.

I argue that it is a responsibility for each of us who have inherited good fortune to participate in helping others.

But it always requires energy. Not just emotional energy, but literally, power.

In the vast majority of countries where extreme poverty is the norm, the sun is hot and constant for most days of the year. One would assume that solar power, then, would be the most effective way to generate the energy needed to cook food, provide light at night, sterilize water, refrigerate medicine, power radios, or even to support small businesses.

However, development organizations and developing country governments have been slow to adopt solar power, even as passive solar collectors require minimal investment or moving parts, and even as photovoltaic solar collectors are becoming cheaper and simpler to produce. It is not clear to me why this is the case.

“In one hour, the earth receives more energy from the sun than the world uses in a whole year, and yet 2 billion of the world’s poorest people have no access to electricity.” Solar Aid video narration

One shining light in the field of developing solar projects overseas is Solar Aid, based in the UK. This organization trains and supports local entrepreneurs in developing countries to use develop small scale solar projects to generate income, improve community health, access clean drinking water, reduce reliance on kerosene or wood for cooking or lighting, and allow students to continue studying after dusk.

In emergencies and humanitarian disasters which disproportionately affect the world’s poorest, solar power also has a role. This site offers a selection of links and information on uses of solar power in disaster response, but these ideas and technologies are also applicable for development work.

The developed world, with its heavy reliance on fossil fuels, is toying with developing renewable energy programs: solar, wind, geothermal, micro-hydro, and tidal turbines. The European Union, for example, is investing heavily in research and development with a view to generate 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. These efforts are welcomed to address concerns of pollution and global warming, but they are massive and costly infrastructural projects. (including an incredible proposed solar array in the Sahara that would export African solar power to Europe)

However, the HUMAN BENEFIT of minimal investments in solar projects in developing countries is staggeringly profound, and will set a precedent for economic growth that is based upon renewable energy sources.

I suppose that the precedent for trying to promote “clean” economic development is buried in the trading of carbon credits globally, and in The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. The CDM is an arrangement allowing industrialised countries with a greenhouse gas reduction commitment to invest in projects that reduce emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries. This mechanism, at least in principle, should help bolster solar aid projects in developing countries.

Of course, there are also marketing angles to support solar development aid. For example, IKEA’s Sunnan lamp campaign proposes that a child in a developing country will receive a solar powered lamp for every lamp sold worldwide. This campaign will help children do their homework after the sun goes down. It will also help boost sales for IKEA.

There is nothing wrong with a win-win proposition.

Another fascinating solar product that has been developed specifically for the developing world is the solar powered refrigerator. Based upon the principle of evaporation, and designed by a 21-year old British woman, this invention has been put to use in Namibia, Zambia, and other African countries, notably for keeping vaccines cool without power.

Solar power is not science fiction. It is successfully being used in countries all over the world to supplement existing energy sources in residential, commercial and industrial applications. The initial source—sunlight—is free. The cost of solar collectors is decreasing, and they are becoming more reliable, more field serviceable and more easily built. Passive solar power, in particular, is simple and low cost and can be used for everything from home heating, to fish farming and aquaculture, to water purification.

It sounds to me that if we invest in solar development aid, we will very quickly help those who have been born into the misfortune of poverty.

Convergence in three sectors

In the wake of the Social Capital Conference held earlier this month in California (SOCAP09) there is a renewed vigor in the discussions about effective financial investments (rather than donations) to solve social problems.

Perhaps the comments of Nell Edgington summarize best the value of this new movement towards a convergence of commercial ideas with the age-old agents of change in western society: the non-profit organizations.

Sadly, in the world of social investments, charities are often seen as the “cousins” working tirelessly, yet fruitlessly, on changing the fabric of our society. It is not that they are completely ineffective, it is that they are not “transformational” in the way social entrepreneurship is expected to be in the coming decades.

Nonetheless, if the experience and knowledge of venture capital markets can be married successfully with the understanding of the needs that is resident with charities, then we may indeed see significant movement forward on human rights, basic needs, global justice, and alleviation of poverty and suffering.

One organization that is leading the charge in Canada is CanadaGives.org. The head of this organization is Denise Castonguay, with whom I recently shared a lengthy discussion on this issue, is a product of the financial world, and her business savvy is evident. She, like many others who have been successful in managing money, wants to put her skills to use to support charitable endeavors. In her own words, her leadership in Canadagives.org provides her with “the lifetime satisfaction of combining industry skills with personal values.”

Canada is still a neophyte player in the world of social capital investing. That being said, Denise Castonguay is one of a small, important cast of like minded social entrepreneurs and organizations: Jeff Skoll (himself a Canadian, although his foundation is US-based) to Social Capital Partners and Social Venture Partners, to the Tides Foundation and the Canadian Ashoka office, with their many Fellows across the world, to name a few.

Canada has a long history of charitable activity. With a registered charity for every 400 citizens, and host of other non-profit entities (companies, regional and local governments, religious organizations, service clubs, UN organizations, and others) active in social issues, the expertise in defining and tackling social problems is not lacking.

However, the ability to design effective interventions on a significant scale remain hamstrung by limited funds, charitable traditions, competition between charities, charity legislation, and a diversion of the majority of investment capital into the for-profit world of stocks, bonds, real-estate and businesses.

I agree with Nell Edgington when she states, “Let’s take a bigger picture view of the essence of what we are attempting to do. And that is to completely reconfigure, and create a productive convergence among, the three sectors (public, private, non-profit). Now that would be innovative.”

Indeed.

Demarketing

In the great yin and yang of changing public consumption and behavior, social marketing often plays the role of “demarketing” the success of commercial marketing programs.

I tip my hat to Craig Lefevre for coining and defining the phrase in his article featuring the New York City Health campaign to discourage the consumption of pop.

Most marketing is asking us to DO SOMETHING: buy this product, use this service, visit our national parks, wear our seatbelts, climb the stairs instead of taking the elevator, etc.

In contrast, demarketing campaigns are asking us NOT to do something we already do: do not smoke, do not ignore domestic violence, do not litter, and in the case of the NYC campaign, do not consume sugary drinks. It strikes me that these demarketing campaigns are generally the purview of social marketing campaigns, as a way to deprogram the audience out of behaviors that the traditional marketing world has programmed us to do.

I do not endeavor to explicitly pit social causes against commercial interests, but it is alarming to think of the number of social marketing campaigns where the goal is to undo a behavior that has been taught to us by commercial marketing powers of yesteryear (or perhaps…yesterdecade).

Take smoking. This is a behavior that had to be propagated by the tobacco companies, although admittedly, the addictive nature of nicotine sure helped the retention rates! Anti-smoking campaigns work to undo the addiction with messages rooted in improved health, better social behaviors, and…well….threats of cancer and death. (clearly, social marketing to address addictions requires the big guns of guilt and fear.)

Obesity? Same thing, in essence. I believe that the alarming rates of obesity in North America can be attributed to poor diet and lack of exercise. Diet is now a function of food producer marketing (see photo that says it all) and the promotion of machines that keep us from exercising (cars, elevators, golf carts, ATV’s, etc). Campaigns to decrease obesity tend to target individual behavior that has become entrenched after years of marketing of products and behaviors that make us fat; these campaigns rarely target the products, they target the consumer.

As an aside, folks like Morgan Spurlock and Michael Moore are targeting the corporations and institutions that have built our demand for things that are bad for us, but this is vigilante marketing, in many ways, and doesn’t represent the typical social marketing messages or methodology.

What about recycling? Again, the campaigns promoting consumer recycling are, in effect, trying to undo our own reliance on the convenience of plastic, glass, paper and other packaging materials. The packaging is, in large measure, the vehicle for product marketing, and is designed not only to carry its contents, but also to increase point of sale advertising, impulse purchasing, and ensure that the consumer can “advertise” their affiliation to that brand or product. If this were not the case, then every container would simply be labeled “beans” or “milk” or “salad dressing” without any artwork, color or logos.

I like to think of myself as a demarketer. I build campaigns with organizations who are trying to improve the social fabric, and in many cases this means addressing the accepted social mores, battling learned behaviors and beliefs, and generating incentives for individuals to work in the public interest.

In many cases, that means we need to undo what others have helped us to do.

Movements start with…well, movement.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

The Chinese philosopher, Lao-Tzu, more than 500 years before the birth of Christ, is credited with this prophetic statement. The original Chinese script has also been translated as “The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet,” but either way, the importance of this quotation for social change remains constant:

The beginning of any social change begins from an understanding of where we are, and requires us to make a simple, purposeful action.

“Psst!”

That is the loudest headline I’ve heard in a long time. It is also the key to the newest social marketing initiative of Onechange.org.

This campaign relies on the same principle espoused by Lao-Tzu and paraphrased by onechange.org:

simple actions matter.

The “Psst!” is a call to action. It is the forced whisper you hear in a library that EVERYONE hears. It gets your attention, even in print.

It is also the sound of air escaping from your tires. The escaping air means that tire pressure drops, and when your tires are under inflated, your fuel economy drops. This is an enormous environmental campaign to reduce fuel consumption that relies on the very simple action required of each of us: keep your tires inflated properly.

I should note that this campaign employs a very diverse marketing mix: from celebrity/politician endorsement, to news stories (and morning TV appearances), to billboards, to corporate partnership (Canadian Tire), to freebies (digital tire guages), public workshops, bus advertising, flyers, public speaking, and a host of other media that is visible to the driving public. Moreover, it is being tested in three Canadian markets before rolling out nationally. These folks are not marketing novices.

Invariably, there are stats that support the campaign:

If every Canadian driver checked and maintained proper tire pressure on a regular basis, each year we’d save over $600 million on fuel, cut 1.4 million tons of CO2, and prevent traffic accidents.

This organization also brought you Project Porchlight, where energy efficient compact fluorescent lightbulbs have been given to homeowners DOOR TO DOOR across North America with the request that the incandescent bulbs on their porchlight could be replaced. This simple action would benefit the environment and the homeowner: less energy is used, the bulbs last longer, and the cost to the homeowner was ZERO.

Of course, this notion of taking stock of a problem, and identifying a simple action that can be taken to directly address the problem is the foundation of all meaningful social movements.

Sometimes, the simple actions are dangerous and require courage, however innocuous they may seem. Take for example, the story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai whose simple act of planting trees because of a need for firewood grew into a movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy in Kenya.

Meaningful social change demands action, of that there is no doubt.

However, the enormous goals of societal behavior change should not be daunting. These movements often rely on very simple individual action that become infectious and affirming, and can also be in the best interests of the initiator.

I, for one, will be checking my tires.

The missing link: documentary to philanthropy

I have finally discovered the intersection of philanthropy, microlending, social entrepreneurship and film: www.worldflix.org.

Here is an exerpt for the website that describes succinctly the purpose of this new donation/engagement/education device:

World Flix is a non-profit organization determined to change the world one video clip at a time.

We have three underlying philosophies:
1. Through modern technology we can assist thousands of people around the world by bringing their issues to the public through video clips and the Internet.
2. Everyone deserves to know the joy of giving which is why we specialize in microgrants and small donations.
3. Donors should know exactly where 100% of their money is going and be able to see the tangible results of their donations.

As a social marketer, I have been reviewing the landscape of film as a tool for social change, and this endeavor is on the cutting edge of making the internet, and specifically video, a powerful tool for change.

The concept of microcredit is not new. Pioneers like the Grameen Bank and Results Canada document the value of microcredit and development loans. Sites like KIVA, Global Giving and Chip In took the idea online and made it possible for individuals with money to make investments in small scale entrepreneurs (or charities) anywhere in the world.

At the same time, the North American philanthropy world is madly discussing social entrepreneurship, and the use of market driven solutions (or at least commercial techniques) to raise funds to address pressing social ills.

An finally, as the video posting craze overwhelms internet users with home-made-productions featuring the sublime to the ridiculous, many charities are hoping to see some increase in awareness about their cause by posting videos.

And then, along comes Worldflix that neatly marries these trends into a meaningful site for the use of video to generate social venture capital and engage small scale donors in philanthropy and micro lending.

I tip my hat to the founders, and I hope that the white noise that crowds the internet makes enough space for meaningful engagement through this well intentioned, topical and effective site.