Tech for Good: Innovations Solving Global Poverty

The air in the conference hall smelled like expensive cologne and misplaced priorities. I listened to a guy in a five thousand dollar suit explain why the world needed a social media platform for goldfish. I wanted to scream because the real world is burning while we optimize ad clicks for teenagers. This is why I am writing about Tech for Good: Innovations Solving Global Poverty right now. WE ARE WASTING OUR BEST MINDS ON PROBLEMS THAT DO NOT EXIST. It is time to look at what actually matters for the four billion people living on the edge of survival. True innovation is not a faster way to order a burrito. True innovation is giving a farmer in a remote village the power to stay alive. I have spent years watching the venture capital world ignore the most profitable market on the planet. THAT MARKET IS THE HUMAN CONDITION. When we talk about poverty, we often talk about charity and handouts. CHARITY IS A LEAKY BUCKET. Technology is a well that never runs dry. If you want to change the world, you do not give a man a fish. You give him a smartphone and a digital identity so he can buy the whole lake. Here are the three pillars where technology is actually moving the needle. 1. MOBILE MONEY AND THE DEATH OF THE UNBANKED LIMITATION. In places like Kenya and Nigeria, the bank is no longer a building made of bricks. The bank is a piece of code sitting on a cheap plastic phone. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY, THE POOR HAVE A SECURE PLACE TO STORE VALUE. Before mobile money, keeping cash under a mattress was an invitation for theft or fire. Now, a mother can send school fees across the country with a single text message. THIS IS NOT JUST CONVENIENCE. It is the foundation of an entire economy that was previously invisible to the global market. When you have a digital record of your transactions, you suddenly have a credit score. When you have a credit score, you can get a loan to buy seeds or a tractor. THIS IS HOW YOU ESCAPE THE LION’S DEN OF POVERTY. It turns a ghost into a consumer and an entrepreneur. 2. DECENTRALIZED ENERGY SYSTEMS. The old way of thinking required massive power grids that cost billions to build. Governments in developing nations often lack the capital or the honesty to build those grids. ENTER THE SOLAR REVOLUTION. Pay as you go solar kits are lighting up homes that have been dark for centuries. A family can pay a few cents a day via their mobile phone to keep the lights on. THIS KILLS THE KEROSENE LAMP. Kerosene is expensive, dangerous, and it ruins the lungs of everyone in the room. Replacing it with a small solar panel is a health intervention disguised as a utility. It allows children to study after the sun goes down. IT ALLOWS SMALL BUSINESSES TO OPERATE INTO THE NIGHT. Energy is the oxygen of economic growth. Without it, you are suffocating in the dark. 3. PRECISION AGRICULTURE FOR THE SMALLHOLDER FARMER. Most of the world's poor are farmers working on less than two hectares of land. They are one bad harvest away from total ruin. LOW COST SENSORS AND SATELLITE DATA ARE CHANGING THE ODDS. A farmer can now receive a text message telling him exactly when the rain will fall. He can use a cheap soil sensor to know he needs nitrogen, not phosphorus. THIS ELIMINATES THE GUESSWORK THAT LEADS TO STARVATION. We are seeing drones used to deliver vaccines and medicine to areas where roads do not exist. WE ARE SEEING AI USED TO IDENTIFY CROP DISEASES FROM A SINGLE PHOTO. The barrier to entry for high level science has collapsed. A kid with a smartphone in a village now has more computing power than NASA had in 1969. ## THE REALITY SHIFT The reality is that we have the tools to end extreme poverty in our lifetime. WHAT WE LACK IS THE COLLECTIVE WILL TO FOCUS ON IT. We are obsessed with the shiny and the new rather than the functional and the vital. I see developers crying about their code not loading fast enough on a fiber optic line. MEANWHILE, A DOCTOR IN RURAL INDIA IS SAVING LIVES USING A LOW BANDWIDTH APP. The grit of these innovators is what inspires me to keep pushing this narrative. THEY ARE THE REAL DISRUPTORS. They are disrupting the cycle of generational trauma and lack. They are building bridges where there were only walls. I am tired of hearing about the next big crypto scam or a VR headset that makes you forget you are lonely. I want to hear about the blockchain project that gives land titles to women in the Middle East. I want to hear about the 3D printed houses that cost four thousand dollars and last for fifty years. THESE ARE THE REASONS TECHNOLOGY WAS CREATED IN THE FIRST PLACE. Technology is meant to be a lever that moves the world. If the lever is only used to lift the rich higher, the lever is broken. WE NEED TO RECALIBRATE OUR METRICS OF SUCCESS. Success should not be measured by your IPO valuation. Success should be measured by how many people you pulled out of the dirt. I look at the landscape of global development and I see a massive opportunity. THERE IS SO MUCH WORK TO BE DONE. There are so many systems that need to be rebuilt from the ground up. We are currently living through a period of extreme technological inequality. THE GAP IS WIDENING BUT THE BRIDGE IS BEING BUILT SIMULTANEOUSLY. Every time a coder chooses to work on a water purification sensor instead of an ad tracker, we win. Every time an investor puts money into an AgTech startup in Africa, we win. WE NEED TO STOP CELEBRATING TRIVIAL JUNK. We need to start rewarding the people who are solving the hard problems. Poverty is not a natural disaster. POVERTY IS A POLICY FAILURE AND A DESIGN FLAW. Technology is the patch that fixes the bug in the human operating system. I want you to think about the last app you downloaded. Did it make your life slightly easier, or did it make someone else’s life possible? THAT IS THE QUESTION WE SHOULD ALL BE ASKING. The future of the human race depends on our ability to look past our own backyard. WE HAVE THE HARDWARE. WE HAVE THE SOFTWARE. NOW WE NEED THE HEART. I am done with the fluff and the empty promises of the tech elite. I am looking for the builders who are willing to get their boots muddy. INNOVATION WITHOUT IMPACT IS JUST RECREATION. Let us stop playing games and start fixing the world. The tools are in our hands. WE JUST HAVE TO USE THEM FOR SOMETHING THAT MATTERS. It is easy to get cynical when you see the state of the world. IT IS EASY TO BELIEVE THAT NOTHING EVER CHANGES. But when I see a digital marketplace connecting a weaver in Peru to a buyer in London, I see hope. When I see a low cost mesh network providing internet to a refugee camp, I see the future. THIS IS THE REAL TECH REVOLUTION. Everything else is just noise. STOP LISTENING TO THE NOISE. Start looking at the signal. THE SIGNAL IS LOUD AND CLEAR. Tech for good is not a trend. IT IS A NECESSITY FOR OUR SPECIES TO SURVIVE. I am betting on the innovators who are working in the shadows. I am betting on the ones who do not care about the limelight. THEY ARE THE ONES WHO WILL SAVE US ALL. FINAL THOUGHT Stop building toys and start building tools for the people who actually need them.