Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Ramani, Shyama
Author-Email: ramani@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University
Author-Name: SadreGhazi, Shuan
Author-Email: ghazi@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University
Author-Name: Duysters, Geert
Author-Email: duysters@merit.unu.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: UNU-MERIT, Maastricht University, and Eindhoven University
	 of Technology
Title: On the Delivery of Pro-Poor Innovations: Managerial Lessons from Sanitation 
	 Activists in India 
Abstract: There is an emerging body of literature that examines how pro-poor 
	 product innovations should be created and what business models should 
	 accompany them. However, there is little on actual implementation 
	 practises and the present paper attempts to fill this void by analyzing 
	 the findings of the literature and confronting them with the actual 
	 field practises of sanitation activists in India. It demonstrates that 
	 the common thread that unifies progressive sanitation activists is their 
	 adoption of a 'market based approach'. Market failures stemming from the 
	 demand side are shown to be due to problems of expressions of demand and 
	 their mismatch with perceptions of the value of the innovation. It also 
	 identifies how activists go beyond the academic model of assessing need, 
	 appropriateness of technology and demand to include practises for 
	 'accompaniment', 'sustainable maintenance' and 'generation of knowledge, 
	 demand and innovation spillovers' in an endogenous fashion, providing an 
	 alternative to the 'centralized platform delivery' model.
Classification-JEL: O31, O33, O32
Keywords: Pro-Poor Innovation, Sanitation, Delivery, Bottom of the Pyramid,
	 implementation
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 2010
Number: 018
File-URL: http://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/wppdf/2010/wp2010-018.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2010018