Innovating for the Global South

"Innovating for the Global South is a strong, coherent, and much-needed book. Its vision is fresh and forward thinking, and entirely in keeping with where the field on innovating for the poor must go. All students interested in the topic, whether from economics, public health, management, or government, should read this book. -- Thomas Burke, Director of the Division of Global Health and Human Rights, Massachusetts General Hospital "An extraordinary contribution by an extraordinary group of authors who write about the most extraordinary challenges of our time." -- Peter Singer, CEO, Grand Challenges Canada "Innovating for the Global South engages a very important and interesting set of global challenges and presents potential solutions involving many important constituencies: governments, businesses and consumers. The authors represent many different disciplines and viewpoints, and the examples used throughout are of excellent quality, very current and highly diverse." -- Jaideep Prabhu, Jawaharlal Nehru Professor of Indian Business and Enterprise and Director of the Centre for India and Global Business, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge

Innovating for the Global South offers fresh solutions for reducing poverty in the developing world.

Despite the vast wealth generated in the last half century, in today’s world inequality is worsening and poverty is becoming increasingly chronic. Hundreds of millions of people continue to live on less than $2 per day and lack basic human necessities such as nutritious food, shelter, clean water, primary health care, and education.

Innovating for the Global South offers fresh solutions for reducing poverty in the developing world. Highlighting the multidisciplinary expertise of the University of Toronto’s Global Innovation Group, leading experts from the fields of engineering, medicine, management, and global public policy examine the causes and consequences of endemic poverty and the challenges of mitigating its effects from the perspective of the world’s poorest of the poor.

Can we imagine ways to generate solar energy to run essential medical equipment in the countryside? Can we adapt information and communication technologies to provide up-to-the-minute agricultural market prices for remote farming villages? How do we create more inclusive innovation processes to hear the voices of those living in urban slums? Is it possible to reinvent a low-cost toilet that operates beyond the water and electricity grids?

Motivated by the imperatives of developing, delivering, and harnessing innovation in the developing world, Innovating for the Global South is essential reading for managers, practitioners, and scholars of development, business, and policy.