Learn How Your Projects Can Help Underdeveloped Rural Populations Solve Environmental Challenges

Helping the environment is not just a challenge for the developed world - it is also a challenge for developing nations and the majority of the world’s population who lives on less than two dollars a day. The Unlimited Potential Team at Microsoft is partnering with the Imagine Cup to help bring attention to issues of rural environmental sustainability.

As you explore ideas for your 2008 Imagine Cup Project we invite you to consider a particular segment of the world’s population that is underserved. Today there are over 3 billion people living under $2 a day and 1 billion people that are illiterate. This is a situation that is exacerbating the world’s poverty-wealth gap, making rural sustainability an urgent priority for governments. As the number can be telling, so are the stories of the people who are often forgotten, but who directly impact the longevity and potential of the Earth.

Here’s your chance to create relevant and sustainable technology, and make a social and economic impact to underserved communities around the world.

1. First, choose your audience: Do you want to create a technology solution that directly helps improve lives in underserved communities? Or do you want to create technology that helps, governments, Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and/or policy makers who can impact the livelihood of these communities?
2. Next, consider the unique challenges: These could include variable levels of literacy, infrastructure problems, lack of electricity, roads etc.
3. Finally, use your software design entry to solve a rural problem in a developing nation. Your solution should also be applicable to the Imagine Cup 2008 theme of creating a sustainable environment and should also address the challenges in rural communities. For ideas and further reading, see the Resources section at the bottom of this page.  

In exploring ideas, we encourage you to think about these three questions:

1. What technology solutions can you think of that drive both a sustainable environment and help the social and economic growth of this population?
2. How could you help them benefit from solving some of the largest environmental challenges today, while helping to improve their basic needs?
3. How can you effectively introduce this technology into disparate and dispersed communities?

When formulating your solutions, feel free to research challenges related to this underserved population in your local region. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• In these communities, there is a growing penetration of mobile phone usage.
• The livelihood of rural people are often land and agriculturally based. Rural farmers struggle with crop yield, soil management, use of pesticides and water management.
• Consider the special customization of technology due to infrastructure conditions. For example, a lack of housing, roads and inconsistent electricity is common.
• There are variable levels of literacy.
• The graphic below illustrates where people of the developing world tend to spend their incomes.

We hope you’ll think creatively on how your technology solution can be relevant, sustainable and impactful.

Good luck!

Educational Resources

We recommend the following general public resources to learn more about this underserved community and the technology solutions that serve them.

General Information
Microsoft Unlimited Potential Web Site
Microsoft Unlimited Potential James U blog
Text Free UI 
Information and Community Technologies for Development
World Resource Institute
Wikipedia Developing Country
Small Surfaces

Videos
Always with you - Learn more about Rural India
Digital Green 
Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED)

Relevant Articles and Newsstories
SMS traffic in India to touch 180 billion by 2010
A bank in Every Pocket (The Economist) 
Mobile Phone Powers an Internet Café in Bangladesh