Daily Brief: The Bambulance (w/ Response)

Today seems to be a slow news day, so during my daily reading I was thrilled to come across the Bambulance! In business we talk a lot about innovative and disruptive design: creating a product that can dramatically change the balance of traditional product categories or industries. This is also a major discussion among BOPreneurs (entrepreneurs designing for the bottom of the pyramid). Designing for BOP markets requires a critical understanding of local cuture, but also local capacity (physical and financial). One of the best books I’ve read on the topic is Paul Polak’s “Out of Poverty”. He discusses the importance of design in creating businesses that can successfully operate in BOP markets. When I saw the “Bambulance“, I immediately thought, What a great design for a BOP business.

The Bambulance Project is dedicated to improving health transport in rural Kenya by providing safe, affordable medical transportation in the form of a bicycle-pulled stretcher made primarily from strong bamboo. Locally manufactured and distributed, the project also seeks to develop skills and provide economic opportunities within the communities it serves.

The Bambulance is a product of Canadian based Design for Development Society. From their website, I cannot get a good grasp on whether business models are being used in either the product development, sales, or implementation stages. Nor is there any information about the price structure involved. It does say that the project is “open-source”, presumably meaning that the parent organization (Canadian based Design for Development Society) is playing more a supervisory role in the whole process. While they are focused on creating a “sustainable design”, I would strongly encourage them to evaluate the business potential for their product. While the Bambulance may be environmentally and socially sustainable, it cannot be economically sustainable until a business model has been produced around it; This means that the product can be produced and sold without donor funding.

Imagine, through a single product, empowering local bamboo farmers, creating sustainable employment across the value chain, creating new periphery businesses (eg. maintenance, parts, etc.) and possibly entrepreneurs to create new private ambulance services. There is a lot of potential here for a seriously strong, socially conscious business that can empower local communities and individuals — and that will not remain dependent on outside funding. This is what we ought to be trying to achieve in development. Hopefully, we will soon see Bambulance handed off to local entrepreneurs with awesome results.

Here is a video of the production process:

Here are some links on the project:

Kara Pecknold

Great post! I'm a volunteer with DFD and can comment briefly on the notion of the BoP model inquiry. We're in the early stages of production, training and testing but have local partners in the field who will help maintain a sustainable business model. As with many not-for-profit societies, we require funding to cover the initial project costs to ensure the best solution is provided (as we are fans of including the voice of the people who will maintain the bambulance locally!). Our next stages for this pilot project are scheduled to begin in 2010. We will deploy 15 prototypes with a business model associated with this implementation. Local partners will provide all components of the bambulance (from bamboo supply to sewing). The initial design stages are complete but since we are fans of ensuring appropriate delivery of a sustainable manufacturing process (which includes the ideas you suggest in this blog post) we want to be sure to do adequate testing on all levels of the design process.

Our project overview suggests the scope:

• Designing and prototyping a bamboo bicycle ambulance (Bambulance);
• Working with stakeholders to fine-tune the ambulance to respond to local needs and environment;
• Training local not-for-profit organizations to manufacture and market the bicycle ambulances, thus providing the organizations with a means of income generation;
• Providing local not-for-profit organizations with basic problem-solving design skills, providing the organizations with tools for approaching future issues;
• Identifying and developing relationships with communities in need of improved health transportation;
• Manufacturing & distributing 15 bamboo bicycle ambulances for piloting by participating healthcare organizations & villages;
• Training recipient organizations in use & maintenance of the ambulances;
• Establishing a system of community-based project monitoring & evaluation.

While the terms “business model” don’t show up directly, we are definitely interested in how this creates economic opportunity locally.

Again, we appreciate your attention to this project and if you are able, we welcome any support for the People’s Choice Award that is part of the Index:Award festivities in Copenhagen. http://www.designtoimprovelife.dk/index.php?opt...