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I knew a charity group many years ago that targeted this issue. They noticed that aid charities would give modern motorcycles to rural medical workers that rap

I knew a charity group many years ago that targeted this issue. They noticed that aid charities would give modern motorcycles to rural medical workers that rapidly ended up in a non-working state. So they gathered older motorbikes, more suitable and more repairable in the destination country, and spent time training the end users in maintenance and upkeep, and ongoing support.

kulahan 11mo ago
Not an uncommon problem with charities working with foreign nations. They fail to capture the local populations because they think of these problems in a vacuum. Person lacks reliable transportation -> give them some -> problem solved There's another example - a charity provides treated mosquito nets for free to millions of families in Africa. Great! People lack reliable mosquito protection -> give them treated nets -> problem solved! But in reality it went like this: People lack reliable mosquito protection -> give them treated nets -> many of these families are starving -> fine mesh nets are great at catching small fish -> all their food is now infected with insecticide, mosquitos continue to access the family as well
- fwipsy 11mo ago
  Givewell did an analysis and concluded that while this is a problem, it's not nearly enough to offset the benefit which comes from using the nets for their intended purpose: https://www.givewell.org/international/technical/programs/insecticide-treated-nets/fishing-with-insecticide-treated-nets https://www.givewell.org/international/technical/programs/in... Certainly improving public health in developing countries is a hard problem! But it's not impossible and existing efforts have had an effect.
yabones 11mo ago
That was exactly the goal with the Buffalo Bicycle project, and I'd say it worked pretty well. Make a bike that's mechanically simple & reliable, maintainable with common tools, and train technicians to fix and upkeep them. Basically create the Toyota Landcruiser of bikes. I kind of want one, even though it's a "bad" bike by the standards of most western audiences (heavy, slow, ugly, etc) https://buffaloride.org/buffalobicycle https://buffaloride.org/buffalobicycle https://worldbicyclerelief.org/product-development/ https://worldbicyclerelief.org/product-development/

kulahan 11mo ago

Not an uncommon problem with charities working with foreign nations. They fail to capture the local populations because they think of these problems in a vacuum. Person lacks reliable transportation -> give them some -> problem solved There's another example - a charity provides treated mosquito nets for free to millions of families in Africa. Great! People lack reliable mosquito protection -> give them treated nets -> problem solved! But in reality it went like this: People lack reliable mosquito protection -> give them treated nets -> many of these families are starving -> fine mesh nets are great at catching small fish -> all their food is now infected with insecticide, mosquitos continue to access the family as well

fwipsy 11mo ago
Givewell did an analysis and concluded that while this is a problem, it's not nearly enough to offset the benefit which comes from using the nets for their intended purpose: https://www.givewell.org/international/technical/programs/insecticide-treated-nets/fishing-with-insecticide-treated-nets https://www.givewell.org/international/technical/programs/in... Certainly improving public health in developing countries is a hard problem! But it's not impossible and existing efforts have had an effect.

yabones 11mo ago

That was exactly the goal with the Buffalo Bicycle project, and I'd say it worked pretty well. Make a bike that's mechanically simple & reliable, maintainable with common tools, and train technicians to fix and upkeep them. Basically create the Toyota Landcruiser of bikes. I kind of want one, even though it's a "bad" bike by the standards of most western audiences (heavy, slow, ugly, etc) https://buffaloride.org/buffalobicycle https://buffaloride.org/buffalobicycle https://worldbicyclerelief.org/product-development/ https://worldbicyclerelief.org/product-development/