BioDesign Policy

  In the following pages you will gather how we operate our 'non-profit'

  It is really a charity.

With a practical engineering background we are able to point out what people in remote places, often with the minimum of resources, can do to help themselves.
Although most interest is with DIY Solar this is not something that everyone can easily adopt so we try to also direct interest to devices that can be made without imports.
Such as solar cookers, minimal irrigation, biomass stoves and especially Conservation Agriculture.

One NGO which has a similar outlook to ours is the Noar Foundation and you can learn lots at http://noarfoundation.org who see education, in the widest sense, as so important.

We have learnt over the years, being involved with developing countries, just how much the poor are exploited both by their rulers and outside forces.
Some of these forces are blatantly are very obvious but others, like some 'new' microfinance, look benevolent but are anything but!

What Muhammad Yunus introduced did a lot of good but his idea has now been corrupted by some to serve the needs of the less than poor. See below.
Most microfinance schemes are good but you only have to check out the interest rates to see that some are profiting from the woes of the poor!

It seems part of a new widespread policy - to use "business" to help in developing countries.

Milford Bateman - Why Doesn't Microfinance Work?

Since its emergence in the 1970s, microfinance has risen to become one of the most high-profile policies to address poverty and under-development in developing and transition countries. It is beloved of rock stars, royalty, movie stars, high-profile politicians and 'trouble-shooting' economists. Its most famous pioneer, Muhammad Yunus, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

In this provocative and controversial analysis, Milford Bateman reveals that microfinance doesn't actually work. That, in fact, the case for it has largely been built on a desire to advance a particular free market ideology, on hype and egregious half-truths, and - latterly - on the Wall Street-style greed, deception and individual self-interest of those promoting and working in microfinance. Using a multitude of case studies from across the globe - from India to Cambodia, Bolivia to Uganda, Serbia to Mexico amongst many others - he exposes why many of its most fundamental building blocks are largely myths. In doing so, he demonstrates that microfinance actually constitutes a major barrier to sustainable economic and social development, and thus also to sustainable poverty reduction.