I wish someone would come up with some kind of recycled kiosk - so many people (especially those making food) have the most unhygienic practices, and it seems to me there has to be a better option that would be affordable. And every time I drive past the open gutters, I keep thinking there must be some alternative (maybe heavy duty plastic grating/grids that come from recycled bahs and bottles). Unfortunately I am no engineer!
Great article Mawuna! Where do you get all these amazing pictures from? There are definitely lots of problems to be addressed but I think 9, 10, and 11 are especially pressing problems. In this day and age no one should be using sheer brawn to till the land with a hoe! You simply cannot advance above subsistence level with this kind of approach. At the end of the day you are too tired to do anything else to even think of ways to innovate or plan for a better future!
I think the biggest problem (which you fail to mention) is the ability of these populations to pay for innovative solutions. Bill Gates has often said that free market capitalism means that men's baldness will get lots of money while malaria gets none.
So how can we lift these populations out of poverty? So they can pay enough to motivate the best African minds to work on these problems?
It's the most compassionate article I've written on SiliconAfrica
Regarding pictures, I spent about 7 hours yesterday going through my archives and the Internet. I constantly bookmark images for future usage in my articles. The article was in the making for about 3 weeks in my head :)
To solve #9, #10, #11, You need solve #13 where the tools are made. Our "Smiths" need to be upgraded.
Believe me, it's not a money issue. You can create money and inject it into any economical system to upstart the exchange of value. this is vast discussion we could have another time
