Answers for Global Poverty: Balaji Mani of Technology Exchange Lab

Balaji working in Senegal

I met Balaji Mani at the Technology Exchange Lab, Inc. (TEL) booth at the Green Festival. He was explaining the unique strategy of his organization to address poverty - his charisma and vision were irresistible so I reached out to him for an interview. Basically TEL is an independent nonprofit that provides an online platform for the global community to share solutions to problems of poverty. They crowd source answers with the same vibe and intention as a WIKI. They purpose to take the innovative thinking of thought leaders like you might see on TED and connect them with those in need of information. They do provide consumer screening of those providing answers so that the sources are determined to be legitimate. That vetting and matchmaking service  is the essential value of TEL.

 1: You are essentially a poverty solution think tank / matchmaking service right? 

A matchmaking service is a great term for TEL in the Internet age! We seek to fill a big information gap between solution providers (innovators, community leaders, etc.) and end users. But TEL is more than that, which will hopefully become more evident soon. TEL is a platform for a diverse community to share information on innovations that can benefit under-resourced populations in many parts of the world. There are hundreds of amazing, sustainable solutions that exist right now to tackle some of the most trying problems of poverty---through the TEL website, we hope that solution providers can list their technologies on our website and that NGOs around the world can use our database to locate the specific solutions they need for their communities. Instead of matching a single person with a particular need to a single low-cost, high-impact product (which TEL can do), TEL is more generally a nexus that can allow innovators, individuals in need and NGOs to connect and hopefully collaborate.

2: How do you screen your solutions for efficacy? Right now, we rely on a variety of information sources to vet and screen our solutions. The TEL Team does as much informational research as possible to ensure that the manufacturer of a product or lab developing a technology is a legitimate, reliable entity. 

We find many solution leads from socially conscious media sources, who are often doing a good amount of screening themselves. We then cross-check information provided by the solution provider with public information available online. Because TEL is an open platform, anyone has the opportunity to challenge the information and we are always in contact with solution providers to update information on the solution's page. We haven't been able to do any "product testing". In the near future, TEL may work with MIT's D-Lab to do that kind of solution evaluation. 

3: How do you publish and promote yourself so that people in need will be able to take advantage of your library of helps? 

TEL researcher Albert Liau in Japan

To find and promote solutions, we're trying as many avenues as we can: partnerships, social media, professional contacts, conferences, etc. We are working to actively engage non-profit organizations around the world, either through social media and internet venues or in-person during special events or meetings we’re able to set up. The main benefit of TEL is that non-profits around the world are aware of their specific community's needs---we provide the information, but they can home in on what they need by searching through the database. Thus far, connecting online and at conferences has built some very successful partnerships for TEL and we are currently in conversation with divisions at Unicef, PATH, and MIT's D-Lab. We're still learning how to increase TEL's visibility and open to trying different approaches. 

4: What are the current biggest needs facing your organization? 

When compared to other organizations, TEL's resources are limited; we're tight on personnel, time and funding. That fundamentally constrains TEL in terms of the number and scale of projects that can be taken on. TEL doesn't need a huge grant or a team of 50 consultants and researchers to do more ambitious, excellent work, but we do need more money and people than we currently have. Given that, we focus much of our attention on low-cost high-impact initiatives for TEL---projects that we can completely in a timely manner that offer significant benefits to the TEL community. Right now we are looking for ways to optimize access to our solutions database. The more networks we become a part of, the more the under-resourced communities of the world can benefit. Ultimately, the non-profits spread around the globe that will use these solutions, so we want to reach as many as possible. Because Internet access is scarce in certain regions, we need an alternative means to make those integral connections with international organizations. 

5: - What has been the biggest success in matching a solution provider with folks in need? 

We are looking at ways of gauging our successes in this regard. Because the information we host is on the internet, we sometimes don't need to facilitate communication between an end user and the supplier. We do, however, know that inquiries into products like the Hippo Roller and the Nokero N200 solar lantern have taken place through information found on our website. We are still in our infant stages and our solutions database is just gaining visibility, so we anticipate more connections this year and into the future. 

6: What is 2012 looking like for you - what are some of the plans you have for this coming year? This is a really important year ahead for us! 

Having launched our new website earlier this year, we are slowly building an online presence and garnering attention online and at conferences. We just did Green Festival in New York City and hopefully we'll be presenting at a few more festivals in the fall. We are also hoping to seal some very important partnerships with fieldworkers abroad so that we can start a "solutions auditing" program where we go out into the field and collect data on user experience and the sustainability of our solutions.