Some examples of South to North knowledge transfer, from a post on SouthSouth.info (plus one extra example). What other examples do you know of?
From Bangladesh – Microfinance programs (not actually invented by Prof Yunus, but pioneered by his Grameen Bank as an effective tool in development).
From Curitiba, Brazil – Bus Rapid Transit Systems (see Curitiba transportation on Appropedia)
From Brazil & Mexico – Conditional Cash Transfer* programs, using welfare as an incentive to encourage specific actions to reduce poverty, e.g. in health and education (see the Wikipedia article).
From Colombia – “Cicolovía,” car-free streets for biking, walking, and other activities, on specific days or .
From Cuba – Alphabetization program for literacy,* “Yo Sí Puedo”
From Kenya – using SMS and the web to improve crisis response, pioneered by Ushahidi. (See Mobile phones in development and disaster management.)
And the additional example:
From Bangladesh, again – Oral rehydration therapy.
Do you have other examples? Please leave a comment.
*These pages are stubs on Appropedia, which means they’re very brief and need to be expanded. Can you add a sentence, a paragraph, or a high quality link?
Some of my favorite picks (not on the list and not well researched yet) for poor to rich country knowledge flow:
-Fixing stuff
-No such thing as waste
-Repurposing
-A purpose for older people (read not just putting them in a home)
-Companion planting
-Biodigestors
-Permaculture or better yet (and less controversially) milpa agriculture
-Most of my favorite foods and recipes
-The windbelt… designed for poor countries abounds with rich country applications
-Some passive solar design
-Yoga
That is my late night, written from a cell phone, sharing a 5 foot by 8 foot apartment in a city list (wait does that count as another example?) 🙂
A few more:
-rubber
-the US constitution (from the North American Iroquois Confederacy according to the very interesting read – The Indian Givers)
-a whole bunch of medicine