Introducing a user-friendly, step-by-step guide to conducting comparative product evaluations.

According to the globe Bank, over 1.1 billion folks have upraised themselves from extreme poorness since one990. however as the worldwide outlook on extreme poorness improves, billions of individuals still struggle to access basic human wants, like water, food, shelter, health care and energy. In response to those challenges, innovators round the world have developed a preponderance of efficient, regionally enforced solutions, from star lanterns and water filters to improved cookstoves and expatriate shelters.

With such a dizzying array of product on the market, development professionals typically struggle to chop through the plug related to novel technologies, and plenty of area unit hesitant to pursue innovative approaches to stubborn development challenges, given the high stakes of operating with economically vulnerable populations.

MIT researchers area unit currently seeking to assist development professionals overcome these challenges by exploitation style thinking, along side a technique for comparative technology analysis that's 5 years within the creating.

A Practitioner's Guide to Technology analysis in international Development offers a easy, in small stages framework to assist organizations determine development solutions that area unit presumably to achieve a given context. Co-authored by the MIT Comprehensive Initiative on Technology analysis (CITE), a program supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and therefore the Technology Exchange laboratory, a Cambridge-based non-governmental organization, the Practitioner’s Guide builds upon 5 years of analysis and over twelve comparative evaluations conducted by CITE across eight countries.

A methodology for all

CITE was supported in 2013 as a number one member of USAID’s education Solutions Network, a coalition of seven universities seeking to leverage the talent of scholars, researchers, and college towards determination major international development challenges. Since then, CITE has evaluated "hardware solutions" — like star lanterns, solar-powered water pumps, and water check kits — whereas conjointly evaluating systems-level solutions, appreciate however distribution models have an effect on the uptake of malaria-diagnostics, and the way food-aid packaging impacts the standard and amount of international food help through advanced provide chains.

Throughout this work, CITE researchers from across the Institute — from MIT D-Lab, the Department of Urban Studies and coming up with (DUSP), Center for Transporation and supply (CTL), and Sociotechnical Systems research facility (SSRC) — developed and iterated upon a multi-disciplinary analysis methodology called ‘3S’ framework, that evaluates technologies from 3 vantages including: quality (how well product perform technically), measurability (how effective product area unit at reaching customers at scale), and property (how product area unit adopted and used over time).

While CITE effectively applied its methodology across multiple sectors, past evaluations enclosed rigorous laboratory testing, and support from school, graduate students and extra partners. in keeping with CITE Associate Director Joanne Mathias, “through the Practitioner’s Guide we have a tendency to aim to empower practitioners and smaller-scale NGOs with the tools needed to seek out solutions that job, despite the resources or facilities they need at their disposal.”

From laboratory to field

Translating 5 years of educational analysis into a easy toolkit isn't any tiny task. By teaming up with the Technology Exchange laboratory (TEL) to author the guide, CITE wanted out a partner capable of articulating their analysis methodology to a non-academic audience, whereas conjointly weaving ideas of humanitarian style into the analysis method. supported by 2 MIT Sloan faculty of Management alumni, TEL works with community-based organizations round the world to implement innovative solutions to issues of poorness.

“Partnering with CITE to develop the Practitioner’s Guide was a natural match,” says TEL Programs Director Brennan Lake. “So a lot of stress is formed on driving innovation and analysis through universities, that is astounding, however there's a bottleneck once it involves swing analysis into apply, and creating innovative approaches and development solutions as accessible as doable to communities on the bottom.”

Indeed, the Practitioner’s Guide includes real-world samples of everyday challenges sweet-faced by development practitioners — appreciate the way to create data-driven trade-offs between a product’s quality, affordability, and time to implement — likewise as case studies primarily based off of past CITE evaluations. The Practitioner’s Guide was conjointly designed to be standard, so organizations at numerous stages of project development might create use of CITE’s methodology.

“Most aid agencies and international NGOs have already got strict procurance protocols in situ,” Lake notes. “The Practitioner’s Guide provides program officers with separate tools for evidence-based higher cognitive process, whereas conjointly providing a a lot of comprehensive framework for NGOs and community-based organizations trying to make programs from the bottom up.”

A Practitioner’s Guide for Technology analysis in international Development is currently out there on the CITE and TEL websites. CITE’s analysis is funded by the USAID U.S. international Development laboratory. CITE is LED by man of science Bishwapriya Sanyal of MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and coming up with, and supported by MIT school and workers from D-Lab, the Priscilla King grey Public Service Center, Sociotechnical Systems research facility, the middle for Transportation and supply, faculty of Engineering, and Sloan faculty of Management.

In addition to Lake, co-authors of the guide embody Jennifer inexperienced, CITE analysis lead, and Éadaoin Ilten of the Technology Exchange laboratory. extra support was provided by Joanne Mathias.