Local Entrepreneurship

I like the Water Hippo Roller as an example of local innovation and entrepeneurship. It's basically a water barrel on its side with a handle like a lawnmower. People use hippo rollers instead of carrying regular barrels by hand (or more frequently, on their head). It's a simple design that is cheap to build with locally produced or scavanged materials.

My friend Mathias Craig's company BlueEnergy operates on similar principles. They build small-scale windmills in rural parts of third-world countries using parts that can be manufactured locally. They can be built by a skilled team in under a week. The only parts that need to be imported are the magnets for the generator. They're still working out a pay-per-use system to make these windmills economically viable.

I came acrosse the Village Enterprise Fund, which is one organization that trains and funds microenterprise. They operate in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania.