Development Professional

Mobility App and Citizens: Views from Jakarta

  • Research

This report shares the research of IDIN Summer Research Fellow Ying Gao, who conducted research on innovations in informal urban transportation in Jakarta, Indonesia. She investigated how the introduction of a novel ride-hailing app for informal transit services was impacting various stakeholders in the system, while also mapping out these stakeholders, their relationships to one another, and their roles within the complex system of urban transportation provision. 

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Mapping of the Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Conakry, Guinea

  • Research

This report outlines the research of IDIN Summer Research Fellow Meghan McCormick, who spend her summer in Conakry, Guinea working to identify and map the city's entrepreneurial ecosystem. The report shares the methods she used to do so, key insights from her research with a variety of local stakeholders, and reflections on the city's innovation ecosystem. The directory of ecosystem players that emerged from her work can be found here.

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Understanding the relationship between place-based economic development strategies for innovation and inequality: the Innovation District in Medellin, Colombia

  • Research

This report presents the research of IDIN Summer Research Fellow Juan Constain, who researched an Innovation District in the Colombian city of Medellín as part of a larger project leading to his Masters thesis. This report documents and maps the players in the district and examines the strategies used to develop the district, paying particular attention to the role of the district in furthering or eroding economic and social inclusion of residents in the surrounding neighborhoods. 

 

 

 

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Investigating the requirements of an online emergency response platform

  • Research

This paper highlights some of the difficulties experienced by volunteers and members of the general public when coordinating a response to an emergency in Pakistan, and discusses a participatory approach to investigating the requirements of an online emergency response platform that links volunteers with donors. The approach builds upon the use of a prototype platform in a simulated emergency situation with real users to test assumptions and learn about the design requirements for such a platform. The paper details the design process and the features of the prototype, and the feedback it received from users.

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The Metrics Café

  • How-to

Funders need impact metrics. Grantees do, too. So who decides what gets measured?

Because funders’ and grantees’ measurement needs clash, they wind up with reporting systems that serve neither. This framework can help reconcile their needs, turning a tangle of metrics into genuine learning.

We explore four models:

  • Prix Fixe: All grantees report on same set of metrics.
  • A La Carte: Grantees choose from a menu of standard metrics.
  • Made-to-Order: Funder and grantee work together to come up with a set of metrics.
  • Bring your Own Lunch: Grantees come with their own metrics.

The framework presents pros, cons, implications and recommendations for each model. Drawing on cases from Root Capital, Development Innovation Ventures at USAID, Mercy Corps’ Social Venture Fund, and the Autodesk Foundation, this framework can help funders decide what model is right for them.

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Handbook for Biomass Cookstove Research, Design, and Development

  • How-to

This handbook presents insights and methodologies from recent biomass cookstove R&D programs at multiple institutions to achieve higher performance, lower cost, and improved usability. This handbook will help cookstove designers and enterprises to integrate the latest R&D innovations into their products and support further innovation.

This handbook was written by a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology D-Lab, led by Dan Sweeney, with research and editorial support from Megha Hegde, Kendra Leith and Amy Smith, in partnership with the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves. This was inspired by their work with small- and medium-scale cookstove and fuel manufacturers, including at the International Development Design Summit for Cookstoves in East Africa in 2017. Participants used design thinking and cookstove R&D to develop creative solutions to challenging problems in household and commercial cooking in the region.

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Performance Evaluation of a Mixed Mode Solar Dryer Incorporating a Backup Heater for Drying Cocoyam Slices

  • Student Papers

This dissertation by KNUST student Benjamin Donkor evaluates the performance of a mixed mode solar dryer with a backup heater. The dryer was evaluated on the parameters of drying rate, efficiency, and drying time with and without the backup heater.

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Performance Evaluation of Both Hand and Foot Operated Rice Threshers

  • Student Papers

This dissertation by KNUST student Dickson Duah evaluated the performance of two rice threshers originally produced in a Creative Capacity Building training in Konongo, Ghana. The threshers were evaluated on the parameters of speed of threshing drum, rate of threshing, capacity, efficiency, losses and drudgery. The foot-operated thresher was found to outperform the hand-operated thresher on all parameters. The student also made recommendations to improve the design of the thresher for better performance.

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Performance Evaluation of a Two-Row Groundnut Planter

  • Student Papers

This disseratation by KNUST student Priscilla Ama Dede Narh evaluates the performance of a manual two-row groundnut planter developed in a Creative Capacity Training in New Longoro, Ghana. The planter was evaluated on the parameters of seed damage, number of seeds discharged, seeding rate, planting depth, inter-row and intra-row spacing, effective field capacity and effective field effiiciency.

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Performance Evaluation of a Peanut Planter

  • Student Papers

This dissertation by KNUST student Francis Achaab evaluates the performance of a precision peanut planter developed at a Creative Capacity Building training in New Longoro, Ghana. The planter was evaluated on the parameters of planting depth, field capacity, field efficiency and rates of seed damage.

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