Why Western Designs Fail in Developing Countries [video]

I think western designs work actually very well in developing countries, such as south america and south east asia. Where they fail is in non-developing countries such as central africa, where the problems of war, crime, drugs, and corruption run so deep that technology is unable to solve any problem, just as giving a washing machine to a crack addict is not going to help him stay clean.

A good example is digging a well in the village to get water. But why isn't there a well in the first place ? Because in most of the case they're getting their water via water trucks from a corrupt government agency who's quite interested in making sure no well ever works for long, and the locals don't have access to the financial, technological and judiciary infrastructure to make long term investments and commitments worthwile. In other words the problem of the village is not the lack of the 'well technology' in the skill tree.

One of the YT commenters got it pretty well:

  Modern day philanthropy is primarily self-serving and ego-driven more than it is actual altruism.  A bunch of very wealthy people, largely divorced from reality, seeking accolades and affirmations that they are good.  Some may have their heart in the right place, but time and time again, the results show a disconnect, and that being in such a privileged position does not automatically qualify someone of "knowing what's best" or that their ideal "greater good" is, well, actually good.

A lot of western designs work very well in developing countries but they tend to be the same designs that work in developed countries too, if at the cheaper end of the market.

Like when I was in Tanzania, communications had been transformed by cell phones and smartphones but the same ones you can buy in the west. More $100 Androids not iPhones. Also a lot of transport is in Toyotas the same you buy in the west (maybe with less lux specs) etc

What doesn't work so well is making things for those other people that you wouldn't use yourself like the One Laptop per Child thing. I bet the people who made that wanted their own kids educated with good teachers, text books and writing, not with crappy laptops.

I am in no way an expert on developmental aid, but one thing that has always bothered me about (my impression of) it is how the overall technological "ecosystem" and historical processes seem to be entirely ignored.

It's very much just, "here's this individual disconnected thing that is supposed to solve a problem" and not "our civilization has centuries of thought and development behind this thing, so here's how we got from there to here, and here are a few intermediary-but-now-outdated forms that illustrate progress." The approach is totally out of context and doesn't seem to be interested in setting up a sustainable tech ecosystem that can eventually support itself. It's just a one-off thing and it keeps the recipient dependent on the ecosystem where the single item came from.

Again, I'm not an expert at all, but historically Japan "solved" this problem by bringing in tons of foreign experts and paying them for their knowledge and training, with the result that Japan became an industrial power in less than a century. I have never seen a similar approach taken in modern development. Singapore, maybe?

> This is why it's so hard to design for cultures and contexts that you're not a part of. You don't even realize all the skewed perceptions you have about the objects surrounding you.

That's something all technology people need to keep in mind all the time, even in their "home" culture, which many seem to totally fail at. You really need to respect people who are different than you, and not just in some politicized identity politics sense.

IMHO, it seems very easy for technology people to create for themselves a weird subculture and lose sight of how things are outside that subculture, let alone something truly foreign like an undeveloped nation.

I think we saw that a lot with cryptocurrency.

Very interesting topic but the “light beats” playing in the background made it hard to focus on what he is saying. I wish there were an option for turning off background music.