A former psychiatrist, Paul Polak was highly skilled in inquiry and active listening. He transferred these skills to a later-in-life career, founding IDE (International Development Enterprises) to help alleviate poverty.
“For the past twenty-five years, two questions have kept my curiosity aroused: What makes poor people poor? And what can they do about their poverty?”
Because he loves to discover new things from people nobody ever listens to, Polak chose to ask “the other 90%” – the 800 million dollar-a-day people in the world. He went to and walked and talked with over 3,000 small acreage farmers — from Vietnam to Bangladesh to Nepal to China to Somalia…
“I have learned more from talking with these poor farmers than from any other thing I have done in my life”’ he declares.
His book, Out of Poverty, Is a testament to his leadership skills and abilities: inquiry – active listening – disruptive thinking – practical application. Millions of farmers are now earning more than $1 a day because of his work.
His approach is grassroots: look for the obvious and state it simply.
1. The biggest reason most poor people are poor is because they don’t have enough money.
2. Most of the extremely poor people earn their living from one-acre farms.
3. They can earn much more money by finding ways to grow and sell highvalue labor-intensive crops such as off-season fruits and vegetables.
4. They need access to cheap small farm irrigation, good seeds and fertilizer, and good markets where they can sell their crops at a profit.
REFLECT:
Have you ever practiced inquiry with
* a person living in poverty?
* a slum dweller
* a homeless person?
How can you practice inquiry at a new level in your everyday life?
Polak’s approach to finding solutions is:
* go where the action is
* talk to the people who have the problem
* listen to what they have to say
* learn everything you can about the problem’s specific context
* make sure your approach has positive and measurable impacts that
can be brought to scale
* see and do the obvious
One “obvious” was irrigation. He collaborated with a Danish engineer who designed a human-powered treadle irrigation pump that was highly successful in Bangladesh. IDE, Polak’s non-profit, took over the marketing and distribution through private sector enterprises in India, Nepal, Cambodia, Myanmar and Zambia. At an unsubsidized price of $25 each, they sold well and were highly successful.
When asked if the treadle pump could be used in other countries, he wanted to know how deep the water table was in each village. Nobody knew the answer, but they wanted the treadle pump. The treadle pump is a suction pump that won’t lift water more than about twenty-seven feet. He instructed the villagers to tie a rock on a piece of string and lower it into the nearest well to measure the depth of the water. If it was over twenty-seven feet, the pump wouldn’t work in their locale. Simple and obvious.
Other “obvious” strategies are around expanding products and markets. One woman grew two gourd vines on the roof of her house to feed her family. When she increased it to 6-8 vines, she had surplus produce to sell. Some Somalian refugees living near streams catch and sell fresh catfish. With
preservation through salting and smoking, and donkey cart transportation to markets, their income was dramatically increased.
Polak discusses the futility of government aid programs that filter down though layers of greed and corruption, and large scale endeavors (like deep wells) that require maintenance, etc. He also addresses misguided projects, like one in Somalia for refugee women to make and sell soap. The issue was
the cost. Purchasers could get the best French perfumed soaps air-shipped to them for less. When the project manager was questioned about this, she responded it was of tremendous importance to the self esteem of the soap makers! The simple and obvious was the soaps weren’t going to sell.
Polak’s immense knowledge base – learned through inquiry – erupts into innumerable disruptive ideas for creating profitable markets in poor areas.
Increasing poor farmers’ and slum dwellers’ incomes creates new markets. Polak admits to being a cheapskate, so focusing on affordability first is natural for him. Keeping the “customer” in mind, he reminds us that for an unskilled laborer to earn $1 dollar:
* in the US, s/he works 10 minutes
* in a poverty area, s/he works two days
So products for them must be scaled and priced accordingly. For instance, vegetable seed packets can be downsized from enough for one acre to enough for two rows of a family garden. Water pipes can be downsized, especially for irrigation. One enterprising farmer uses discarded urethra tubes the local hospital gives him for feeder irrigation lines.
A prime example of a burgeoning market is eye glasses. Over 1 billion people need glasses but don’t have them. About 80% of them are near sighted or far sighted, which for an aging tailor, makes the difference between earning an income and begging.
Several foundations are addressing the issue with free and low-cost glasses, but only reaching 1% of the population needing them. Polak suggests creating an international for-profit company to address the need.
* start with @$10 million in venture capital
* purchase glasses made in China for $.50 each
* create a marketing and distribution strategy
– local marketing could be via mobile display stands pushed by
individuals or bicycles or motor scooters, or…
– large scale marketing could be via partnerships with major
corporations like TATA in India.
* sell fifty million pairs for $2 each in five years (the math is simple and
obvious – and profitable).
The poor can become customers for affordable products like these glasses, solar lighting, bricks for houses, health care, education…. Polak challenges those with an entrepreneurial spirit combined with a desire to change the world to step into this void.
APPLY:
Try Polak’s approach to solve a problem / find a solution.
* go where the action is
* talk to the people who have the problem
* actively listen to what they have to say
* learn everything you can about the problem’s specific context
* make sure your approach has positive and measurable impacts that
can be brought to scale
* see and do the obvious
Paul Polak, Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail, San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler , 2009.
