Resources

"Innovate on existing platforms (We’ve got bicycles and mobile phones in Africa, plus lots of metal to weld. Innovate using that stuff, rather than bringing in completely new tech.)"

This aspect of social innovation is I think of the greatest importance. If you create something to solve some problem or some need, but it is something that needs to be manufactured elsewhere, your solution will probably not be very successful or sustainable.

Say you are trying to create a low cost water pump, and you succeed, making something cheaper and more effective than other water pumps, but that is made in a factory. Despite this, unless it is extremely low cost, which is unlikely, it will be too expensive for people living on a dollar a day to buy, and you also run into problems with distribution, something that adds even more to the cost. If instead you do something that local people can make with the materials they have available, all you need to distribute is the knowledge, and the only cost is the time of making it.

This secret to social innovation is especially important to me as an engineer and as someone who loves to work with metal. With bicycles, cell phones, and metal with the ability to weld you have huge resources. Bicycles and create mechanical work, cellphones and miniature portable computers, and metal can be worked or welded in so many ways to create so many things. This especially excites me because before reading this, I had no idea that Africa had plenty of metal to weld, and since I love welding, the fact that it does is fantastic.

Overall, innovating off of existing platforms and resources is crucial to creating effective and innovative solutions. I think a great example of this are Amy Smith's charcoal makers, which really only require shaping and welding metal.