Great post. Many of these people can be future collaborators and their needs served can change how we all use products.
I enjoyed this post Sophie, and have learned from it too, thank you for this.
I’ve seen many videos recently about underserved or what people call “third world” countries (I personally dislike the term) coming up with extremely intelligent and innovative ideas to repurpose things they already have plenty of. Whether it’s coconut husks that serve as insulation for the ice bags and cold bags, or plastic being used as bricks.
They generate these business ideas out of necessity, almost, which is based on needing a solution due to lack of resources but a lot of resourcefulness, not really just because they want yet another subscription to a TV channel or something like that.
I also enjoyed the post of yours you reference from September. We should celebrate and promote more of these companies.
One that I saw in Europe is Lunettes pour Tous (Glasses for all) which has a bus you can “book” for your council or smaller towns and communities and they’ll sell glasses for 1/10 of the usual cost, and within 10-30 minutes, including a consultation that will tell you your needs as per the measures with an optometrist.
Very much needed in rural areas where people might not have access to transports and stores such as those. I wonder if there’s something similar for refugees and other communities apart from Europe. I’ll take a look!
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment, Francisca. I dislike the term too and prefer The World Bank country classification (https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups). We see great innovation and leadership achieving positive-sum outcomes in low- and middle-income economies as well as in high-income economies such as across Europe and also here in Australia. Where problems persist and people are passionate about taking action, the barriers to doing so are reducing.
Thanks for sharing the Lunettes pour Tous example - sounds very valuable to the local community. Share what you find in taking a look. Y
es, there may well be innovations in the refugee space, or working with other underserved communities, in Europe. It's good to learn from them and leverage the learning so more organisations can lead in these important spaces.
Great post. Many of these people can be future collaborators and their needs served can change how we all use products.
I enjoyed this post Sophie, and have learned from it too, thank you for this.
I’ve seen many videos recently about underserved or what people call “third world” countries (I personally dislike the term) coming up with extremely intelligent and innovative ideas to repurpose things they already have plenty of. Whether it’s coconut husks that serve as insulation for the ice bags and cold bags, or plastic being used as bricks.
They generate these business ideas out of necessity, almost, which is based on needing a solution due to lack of resources but a lot of resourcefulness, not really just because they want yet another subscription to a TV channel or something like that.
I also enjoyed the post of yours you reference from September. We should celebrate and promote more of these companies.
One that I saw in Europe is Lunettes pour Tous (Glasses for all) which has a bus you can “book” for your council or smaller towns and communities and they’ll sell glasses for 1/10 of the usual cost, and within 10-30 minutes, including a consultation that will tell you your needs as per the measures with an optometrist.
Very much needed in rural areas where people might not have access to transports and stores such as those. I wonder if there’s something similar for refugees and other communities apart from Europe. I’ll take a look!
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment, Francisca. I dislike the term too and prefer The World Bank country classification (https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-and-lending-groups). We see great innovation and leadership achieving positive-sum outcomes in low- and middle-income economies as well as in high-income economies such as across Europe and also here in Australia. Where problems persist and people are passionate about taking action, the barriers to doing so are reducing.
Thanks for sharing the Lunettes pour Tous example - sounds very valuable to the local community. Share what you find in taking a look. Y
es, there may well be innovations in the refugee space, or working with other underserved communities, in Europe. It's good to learn from them and leverage the learning so more organisations can lead in these important spaces.