Customer Reviews

Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail (BK Currents Book)

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In July 2005, we met Dr. Paul Polak at the first Aspen Leadership Summit and began to understand his insights and work of twenty-five years. He described "The Four Revolutions Needed to End Poverty" in a way that inspired us as designers and problem-solvers:

"I believe that nothing less than revolutions in water, agriculture, markets, and design are needed. All four are doable and practical, and I'm committed to making them happen before I die.

How do we change how the world thinks and acts about dollar-a-day poverty? I want to make three things happen:

Change the way design is taught in the west.

Change the way design is taught in developing countries.

Create a platform for 10,000 of the world's best designers to address the practical problems of the other 90% of the world's customers."

This delightful book is the beginning of finding ways for everyone to jump in as major players, in a way that fits with their dreams. It's an education, an insightful and inspiring process and a great opportunity for us all.

Polak comes from a very practical, farmer-focused perspective that acknowledges the broader poverty debate but puts a premium on what the farmer wants and needs, and focuses on market-based products and solutions that help farmers get out of poverty. The drip irrigation systems, treadle pumps, water storage and other products described in the book are the definition of demand-driven and are offered at prices farmers can afford and in ways that make money for those providing the products. All of the solutions in the book are offered through markets, and always take into account scalability and sustainability (acknowledging the need for some subsidy or other financing mechanism up front to prove the case).

The power of Polak's arguments are in the examples that he weaves throughout the book. (His skepticism of "the experts" comes through in some of the examples in helpful ways as well). After having read a number of the current development thinkers, I would recommend this book above the others for its ability to start with the needs of the poor farmer, highlight solutions, explain why they are sustainable through markets, and issue a challenge to development professionals and product designers around the world for how to make money while also serving the needs of the poor who represent a large and untapped market.

The book made me want to go out and start a business that serves such large unmet needs. I highly recommend the book - a good read and a great, practical, down-to-earth reminder of what matters to people who live on less than $1/day -- affordability and practical use.

Paul Polack's Out of Poverty is a straightforward and entertaining presentation of his outstanding discoveries in ending dollar-a-day poverty throughout the developing world. Paul's work over the past twenty-five years has helped millions of farming families invest in their own futures and this book traces his journeys and the profound understandings that became clear to him along the way. His process is revolutionary yet downright practical and simple to implement, and astonishingly effective. It was fascinating to learn how charity can actually create greater need and it is delightfully reassuring to see that his perspectives are launching a new class of thinking in Design,the creation of markets and the eradication of poverty.

An inspiring book that makes one think about the greater good that can come out of poverty eradication & how we can all be a part of it.

Criticism:

1. Author does not cover how he made the transition from being a psychiatrist to creating IDE. This makes it harder to understand how one can participate in this cause, even if one wanted to.

2. While the book is a great food for thought, it seems to be more focused on the destination rather than the journey. At times, it reads more like a journal which may be intentional, but this inconsistency gives the reader, a rather half baked impression.

3. Author's disagreement with major organizations such as the UN feel like a rant at times, as he only criticizes them without putting forth any concrete suggestions for bigger issues such as infrastructure (development of roads, bridges, dam development, power generation, healthcare & educational programs).

[...]

I felt that Polak really stretched to fill the 200 pages of this book. Many of the points he made were repeated in six different places unnecessarily. I would have enjoyed hearing more in-depth case studies of some of those farmers he has worked with or even of the successful organizations he has created. While his overall point was good, this book failed to deliver it impactfully.

Mr Polak presents us with some strategies to fight poverty as well as proof in the form of one story in particular of a poor Nepalese family who uses low-cost irrigation to increase their income by farming in the dry winter season. This book could be distilled down to a good TED talk, however, as Mr Polak repeats himself frequently, often without expounding his ideas in any meaningful way. The points made are sound, however, and as such this book outlines a good ideological platform for those interested in developing world enterprise and design.

To those who argue that Polak is anti-charity, or that he believes the free market will solve anything: you didn't read the book carefully as there no fewer than three places where the author admits that government and charity are necessary in the fight against poverty. This book is titled "when traditional approaches fail" - not " traditional approaches should be completely abandoned." Sure, Polak can get pretty cavalier when characterizing his opponents, and it's a weakness of the book, but it doesn't detract from the validity if his argument, nor does he spend the book trashing NGOs and the like.

Read this if you have the time and are genuinely interested in design for the developing world. Reading about treadle pumps and drip irrigation is really boring if you're not concerned with the repercussions.

One of the big unanswered questions - how to achieve the scalability needed to eradicate poverty - is only touched on briefly in the final pages when Polak dismisses detractors that say off-season growing by larger numbers will bring down prices by countering that the demand will increase as income increases among the poor. But if the only new people who have money to create the demand are growing the vegetables, why would they buy them? I would love to read an economist's critique of Polak's ideas.

Regardless of whether the book is amazing or not, everyone should at least go and find out about Paul Polak, his ideas, his work, and his detractors.

Paul Polak allows readers the privileged of a front row seat to his methods of successful innovation while addressing issues of poverty. Here is proof that real genius is in searching for the most direct solutions and insisting on effectiveness. Well worth studying in depth. My copy is now well marked for future application. Bravo Mr. Polak! Thank you for sharing your process.

Paul Polak has clearly done amazing work for impoverished people, and this book tells that story well. I found his book to be refreshingly practical, clearly written, and engaging. Here is a man who, rather than wringing his hands at the injustice of poverty, has rolled up his sleeves and come up a number of effective ways to help people pull themselves out of poverty.
Although he mentions many tools, the key ones he talks about are the treadle pump for tapping shallow ground water, and low-cost drip irrigation.

There are a couple of very critical points that Polack brings up that are worth underlining.
First of all, the tools that his company sells are actually sold to poor people. Yes the tools come with great support. Yes the tools come with a strong guarantee of quality. However they are not given away for free. Rather they are sold, and this contracting requires a risk and a commitment on the part of the buyer.

Just as importantly, and this is the second point, bringing user money (as opposed to donor money) and commitment into the business model, gives it a fighting chance of being a self-sustaining model. It's not just about designing and manufacturing the treadle pump, rather it's about creating a whole support ecosystem around such a product, including a dealer channel, marketing, financing, product installation and training, product repairs, replacement parts, and so on.

Every part of this system creates more opportunities for value-add and employment. This is a subtle point, and yet it comes out nicely in Polak's book, that you have to think of developing a *system* around products in developing countries, rather than just dropping them from the air and going away.

A final note is that this book is an absolute pleasure to read, particularly against the backdrop of many books on poverty that while being impressively sophisticated, are challenging to get through. In contrast, this one's a page-turner.

This book is fantastic! I agree that Polak could have been less repetitive at times and still gotten the same impact out of his intended message, but you will not find a better book out there that clearly explains the challenges of people living on a few dollars a day (much of the world's population) to less than 1 dollar a day. After reading this book, I whole-heartedly believe that the argument for giving-based aid programs is dead and the only effective way forward for economic/community development is through entrepreneurial profit-oriented business models. The bottom-line of Paul Polak's argument is that we cannot approach aid/development work through Western-institutionalized perspectives or simply give things away because these approaches have not worked in the past and they are certainly not working now! We need to be pragmatists. We need to do anything and everything that produces positive, measurable impacts and is sustainable. If you haven't already read E.F. Schumacher's "Small is Beautiful" get that as well. Simple yet groundbreaking ideas and wisdom from Polak and Schumacher.

"Out of Poverty" tells the lessons Paul Polak (Denver psychiatrist working with the local homeless) learned both in Denver and Africa in working with the poor.

Polak's main emphasis is to go where the action is, talk to the people with the problems and listen to what they say, and then learn everything you can about the problem and alternative solutions. Don't just sit in a field office and theorize from there!

Think and act big - eg. plan for 50% progress within 15 years, not just .1%. Make certain your approach is cost-effective.

Why do so many programs fail? Polak says the typical large-scale poverty programs rely on big solutions that benefit only big producers and users; failure to create ownership (care and repair) are other problems.

Another problem is that many programs try to do too much. Polak suggests addressing poverty directly - help recipients make more money, rather than focus on increased political power, education, illness eradication, etc. Greater income allows the poor to make their own choices about which problems to then eliminate, and is much simpler to manage from a donor's perspective.

Helping the poor earn more often involves making cheaper alternative resources - eg. treadle pumps, irrigation systems at lower cost than then available. Ways to do this include reduced weight (eg. operate at lower pressure, allowing thinner irrigation pipe), go back to earlier historical designs and consider remaking them using new materials.

Polak also explains why farmers are often so seemingly resistant to new approaches. The high costs of loans, vs. low incomes, make eg. use of more expensive new seeds very risky vs. the chance of a flood wiping out their entire crop.

Developing Country Market Impediments: Lack of entrepreneurial spirit, failure to see an opportunity or recognize how to sell extra crops, no intellectual property protection to incentivize development of new tools, hope for subsidies ("Why buy a pump when maybe waiting will bring one free?"), corruption (surer road to getting a good job for one's son), difficult transportation, lack of information about opportunities, poor access to credit, difficulty aggregating product from small farmers.

Recommends Gates Foundation perspective of insisting on measurable impacts that are attained.