Business News Network
Paul Polak is interviewed on 'SqueezePlay'
June 17, 2008
BNN – Business News Network is Canada's only all business specialty channel. Simplicity Saves the Day: BNN speaks with Paul Polak, founder, International Development Enterprises and author, "Out of Poverty." Click here to watch.
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CBC's The Hour
Paul Polak is interviewed on 'The Hour' with George Stroumboulopoulos, Tuesday June 10th at 11pm, on CBC
June 2008
The Hour is a national current affairs show on CBC television hosted by George Stroumboulopoulos. It’s not a newscast. It’s not a magazine show. The Hour a different take on the news through the lens of George and company. While news shows cover the issues of the day, The Hour dissects the issues within the issues. Always unconventional. Often controversial. Never predictable. Click here to watch.
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Western News
Polak encourages grads to make a difference
June 9, 2008
"Some people call me a contrarian, but I like to take the opposite view." Paul Polak With this dry humour, speads to graduates from the faculties of Graduate Studies, Health Sciences (Nursing) along with Brescia University College and Huron University College at the June 9 afternoon session of Western's 291st Convocation. Click here to listen.
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The Hindu
Towards low-tech, high-value solutions for disabilities
June 2008
“Today, the world needs not one, but a hundred such labs,” says development guru Paul Polak, author of the recent book Out of Poverty. Ideally, at least half of these labs should be located in the developing countries where millions need inexpensive technology to improve the quality of their lives, he adds.
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Dexigner
CUSP Conference
June 2008
Cusp Conference 2008 - a conference about vision, passion, imagination, energy, innovation, and the "design of everything." Presenters to date include architect/artist Adam Kalkin, digital pioneer/filmmaker Douglas Gayeton, poverty fighter Paul Polak, eco-scientist Dr. Carl Hodges, musician/digital artist Kirsty Hawkshaw, and environmental attorney Robert F Kennedy Jr.
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Canadian Architect
OCAD launches Art & Design Society with talk by author Dr. Paul Polak
June 2008
"As an inspiration for this acclaimed exhibition, Dr. Polak will provide a uniquely insightful discussion about global poverty," said Charles Reeve, Curator of the Professional Gallery.
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Minnesota Public Radio
Smart design for people who need it
May 23, 2008
Polak, author of the book "Out of Poverty" believes that rather than handing out aid to people in need, it's better to come up with affordable solutions that allow people to help themselves. He says cheap, simple devices can have a tremendous impact. Click here to listen.
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Stanford Social Innovation Review
Book Review
Spring Issue 2008
Paul Hudnut reviews Out of Poverty: experience in the fields and villages, and Polak’s knack for writing entertaining and instructive stories, are the book’s greatest strengths; and they’re a good reason why entrepreneurs, designers, and students working on water filters, laptops, solar lanterns, and other products designed to help the poor increase their income or reduce the drudgery of their lives should read this book. As for investors, teachers, policymakers, and others intrigued by alternatives to traditional approaches to international development—the book will surely provide inspiring examples of enterprise’s great power to lift people “out of poverty.”
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Cornell's eClips
Interview/Lecture: Paul Polak - Interview - International Development Enterprises (IDE)
2008
Videos: During this interview, Polak discusses the creation of his not-for-profit, IDE and also states the importance of developing cost effective solutions to help alleviate poverty. In addition, Polak states that solutions should be created to treat those in need as customers and not charity cases.
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Voice of America
Activist Paul Polak Offers Low Tech Solutions for Hunger, Poverty
May 19 , 2008
Social activist Paul Polak says simple technology can make small farms more efficient and relieve hunger and poverty in the developing world. Mike O'Sullivan reports that Polak, in his recent book called Out of Poverty, says affordable low-tech products can turn small-plot farms into profitable businesses.
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FORA.tv
Books Inc.
San Francisco, CA
April 14 , 2008
Meet Paul Polak author of Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail that explodes what he calls the "Three Great Poverty Eradication Myths": that we can donate people out of poverty, that national economic growth will end poverty, and that Big Business, operating as it does now, will end poverty - Books Inc.
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NPR's Fresh Air
Paul Polak, Tackling Global Poverty His Own Way
April 23 , 2008
His perhaps-surprising conclusion: Government subsidies for the rural poor often make things worse. Instead, Polak teaches families and farmers — many of whom live on a dollar a day and own perhaps an acre of land — how to increase crop yields with simple technologies, such as cheap, foot-operated water pumps and inexpensive drip hoses for irrigation.
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The Philadelphia Inquirer
The 'Bottom Billion'
March 30, 2008
How can big business help the world's poorest people? Two concepts, affordability and free market delivery, may hold the key.
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Communication Arts
The Design Revolution
March 10, 2008
"There is something about the essential practicality and common sense with which Polak presents his case that makes it easy to see how it's possible to help him make it work."
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The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Creating Ways for Very Poor People to Make More Money
March, 2008
"There can be no question that the most direct and cost-effective first step out of poverty is to find ways to help poor people to increase their income," argues Paul Polak.
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International Herald Tribune
Prescriptions for helping poor people help themselves
February 25, 2008
He describes his experiences and the lessons learned in his book, as well as prescribing his formula for ending poverty, which boils down to helping poor people to help themselves, with design playing an important supporting role in their self-improvement.
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The Seattle Times
Doctor's irrigation device helps rural poor harvest prosperity
February 24, 2008
"Paul's shown what one person with determination can achieve, and it's more than you'd ever have imagined," said Dr. J. Gary May, a Denver psychiatrist who's known Polak since the '70s.
Polak, a self-described "opportunist and entrepreneur," still works 80-hour weeks at age 74.
"I'm an Energizer bunny type," he said. "It's not that I'm killing myself working; I'm doing what I love."
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BusinessWeek
Giving the Poor a Means to Work
February 22, 2008
Polak tells the stories of individual farmers like Krishna Bahadur Thapa, a Nepali who increased his family's annual income from an average of $100 to more than $500. Such anecdotes are woven together with charts of hard data showing IDE's impact, and practical, straightforward advice for organizations, businesses, and governments wishing to follow IDE's approach. The book is part policy rant, part case-study, part how-to, and it is anything but depressing.
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The Economist
Yogurt or cucumber?
February 21, 2008
A wise and engaging new book. A former psychiatrist, he listens intently to poor people before allowing his mind to run over with tricks, gambits and contraptions that might help them.
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Popular Science
Geared for Change: Products for the Impoverished
How does a bicycle generator help someone earn a living? Imagine pedaling from village to village, storing electricity in a battery along the way and then charging people's cellphones for a few cents a pop.
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Houston Chronicle
A simple device helps millions
If there's a limit to what one person can do about Third World poverty, Paul Polak hasn't found it.
For 25 years, he's been the Johnny Appleseed of the treadle pump, a simple foot-powered irrigation device that's enabled millions of farmers making $1 a day in places such as Bangladesh and Zambia to produce bigger crops and earn more.
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McClatchy
American pumps up Third World farmers' income
Polak, a self-described "opportunist and entrepreneur," still works 80-hour weeks at age 74. "I'm an Energizer bunny type," he said in an interview. "It's not that I'm killing myself working; I'm doing what I love."
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The New Zealand Herald
Top Design for the Truly Needy
"A billion customers in the world are waiting for a $2 pair of eyeglasses, a $10 solar lantern and a $100 house," Dr Paul Polak, a former psychiatrist who now runs a organisation that helps poor farmers become entrepreneurs, told the New York Times. "
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NextBillion.net
Book Review: Paul Polak's Out of Poverty
The book is certainly worth a read, and I hope to see it appear on the development academics' reading lists soon. Out of Poverty gets beyond the fractious discussions of "what's gone wrong?" or "which approach is right?" and offers a welcome dose of common sense for getting people out of poverty, quickly and permanently.
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Pop!Tech: Paul Polak inspires
To inspire projects like Kiva, you need mentors. Andrew Zolli introduces Paul Polak, founder of International Development Enterprises, as one of the key mentors in the anti-poverty and development space. |
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Pop!Tech
Video of Paul speaking at annual conference.
From his extensive experiences working with
the poor of the developing world, Paul Polak
has learned a lot about effective market-based
approaches to alleviating poverty. He argues
that in order to be successful, solutions must
be simple, inexpensive, easy to reproduce, and
most important, respond to the expressed needs
of the people they are meant to benefit. view |
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Scientific American
Paul Polak, leader in Scientific American top 50
American entrepreneur
and philanthropist, Dr. Paul Polak, is named by Scientific
American magazine as one of the Scientific American 50 - the
noted magazine's second annual list recognizing outstanding
acts of leadership in technology from 2003. view |
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National Geographic
Water Pressure field notes From author Fen Montaigne
I thought
American water wizard Paul Polak was half-mad when I was chasing
him around the Zambian countryside as he tried to bring cheap
irrigation systems to small farmers. But Polak is an admirable
character, and it was good fun trailing behind this dynamo. view |
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The Wall Street Journal
"The Giving Guide: Small Ways to Make A Big Difference" by
Steve Mollman
Methods are influenced by its American founder Paul Polak's
earlier career in psychiatry: He figures the best way to help
is to get inside the end-user's head by going where farmers live
and work to understand their daily routines. view |
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Forbes
"Trickle-Up Economics: How low-tech, low-cost designs are helping the poorest farmers on Earth grow their way out of poverty." by David Armstrong with Naazneen Karmali
His first big success was bringing the treadle pump to Bangladesh. Costing $25, it works like a StairMaster: Farmers pump shallow groundwater directly onto crops using the energy of their legs. view |
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New York Times
"Design That Solves Problems for the World's Poor" by Donald G. McNeil Jr.
The world's cleverest designers, said Dr. Polak, a former psychiatrist who now runs an organization helping poor farmers become entrepreneurs, cater to the globe's richest 10 percent, creating items like wine labels, couture and Maseratis. "We need a revolution to reverse that silly ratio," he said. view |
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International Herald Tribune
"Alice Rawsthorn on design for the unwealthiest 90 percent" by Alice Rawsthorn
There are 6.5 billion people on this planet, 90 percent of whom can't afford basic products and services. Half of them, nearly three billion people, don't have regular access to food, shelter or clean water. Yet whenever we think, or talk, about design, it's invariably about something that's intended to be sold to one of the privileged minority - the richest 10 percent. view |
