enabled services depends on many different factors which differ immensely from project to project. So whereas the Roundtable workshops are a great start for catalyzing agency and ownership among key sector stakeholders, more is needed to ensure that the larger systems in which the ICT-enabled solutions are embedded are in the end conducive to the empowerment of individuals. This is an area where immersion in the capability approach has provided value for IICD. The concepts of the CA are not always intuitively obvious, since we initially associated the term ‘capabilities’ with individual skills sets, organizational resources, and sector linkages. Still, ploughing through the literature and reflecting on what it takes to truly ‘expand human capabilities’ has caused us to look more specifically at all the different factors that play a role. IICD has from its programs gained quite some experience in what contributes to an ICT4D project’s success or failure, and thinking in terms of the CA has given us a conceptual tool to name and better analyze the different elements and dynamics at play and reflect on their connection to the ultimate aims of human development.
What remains a challenge for understanding how we can best use what the CA has to offer, are our multiple goals at individual, organizational and sector/institutional level. IICD works mainly through intermediary organizations such as SEND and CERTES mentioned, and supports them to effectively integrate the use of ICT in their development activities. The CA suggests that the design of ICT-enabled activities need to take into account human diversity, while at the same time we aim to support the generation of systems and services that serve a large group of beneficiaries. How can these two best be married? Delving into the CA reminded us that that IICD’s support at organizational/institutional level, while enhancing financial, educational and health resources for individuals through ICT, should also result in increased empowerment, choice and agency at individual beneficiary level. In our approach to monitoring and evaluation, we already look into individuals’ feeling of being empowered through the programs. It would be interesting to look more closely at whether the same individuals also had more options and were actually able to act on those options.
However, development organizations such as IICD face increasing financial and political pressure, with the implication that fewer resources are available for monitoring and evaluation per project. We thus increasingly work with larger groups of organizations and less with individual organizations, while faced with increasing pressure for proving larger scale impact. Human capabilities are moreover hard to measure and it is hard to prove that capability expansion is due to ICT development interventions. Under these circumstances, how can development organizations practically operationalize the CA in the design and implementation of sector programs, to ensure that the local organizations’ ICT-based services (continue to) fit the local context and meet the real needs of different categories of individuals? We hope to continue reflection on this, in collaboration with CA scholars.
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Making the Capability Approach Accessible to Designers
– Report of an On-going Exploration
Annemarie Mink (A.Mink@tudelft.nl), Vikram Parmar5 & Prabhu Kandachar Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, TU Delft
Industrial Design Engineering is about the creation of technological products or services to meet human needs. Papanek (1985) stated already in the 1970s that ‘design has become the most powerful tool with which man shapes his tools and environments’ – and thereby also his
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opportunities. For example, ICTs enhance the opportunity to communicate and educate ourselves, and a bicycle provides the opportunity to move further. So, as Oosterlaken (2009) also indicated, technological design has the possibility to create products that improve people’s real opportunities or capabilities.
In our Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE), design for people living in emerging markets is a specific program which focuses on design projects for developing products for people who are deprived of certain valuable capabilities. Of course these projects sometimes raise larger questions, for example on what development is, how design can contribute to this and if paternalism always can or should be avoided. We expect that the CA will enable designers to better reflect on such issues and to assist them in decision making. Therefore, we are investigating if and how the CA can be integrated into the design process. However, as Chiappero Martinetti & Roche (2009) stated, it is not easy to translate the richness of a theoretical framework like the CA into practical terms.
Moreover, the CA is mainly used as a framework to analyze and evaluate poverty, whereas we want to use the CA to inform designers during the design process to assist them in expanding the target users’ capabilities. This is what Alkire (2008) calls the ‘prospective use’ of the CA, for which a plurality of methods – largely lacking so far - will be needed. For technology more broadly, contributions towards applying the CA have been made by Kleine (2011), who constructed the Choice Framework to use in analysis and planning of ICT4D projects, and Fernández-Baldor, Hueso, & Boni (2009), who developed the ‘Technology for Freedom’ approach that describes community-driven technological processes to generate social transformation. However, the translation of the CA into the practical field of IDE is yet in its early stages.
Our aim is to properly gear the CA towards designers, to aid them in developing technologies that better address the social needs and realities and improve the real opportunities (‘capabilities’) of people living in emerging markets. As a first exploratory exercise to investigate if and how the CA can add something to design, we evaluated some existing product designs from a capability perspective6. In the next section we describe one of these cases, the evaluation of the Anna Charkha. The Anna Charkha is a silk reeling machine developed by the first author as her graduation project. We decided to study this product, because the machine is implemented in the field, and because the technology, local circumstances and stakeholders are well-known to the first author. The case study reveals some areas that were underexposed during the design project, but which turned out to be very relevant from a CA perspective.
The Anna Charkha
Tasar silk reeling - processing cocoons into yarn - is one of the livelihood activities that the Indian NGO PRADAN introduced to village women in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. PRADAN introduced reeling and re-reeling machinery to replace the primitive and rudimentary technology of palm or thigh reeling. The machines ensured a higher yield and a higher quality yarn, which improved the reeler’s income. The additional money enables the families to fulfill their basic needs and reduces the urge for the husband to migrate to the city for work. Furthermore, the reeling activity makes the women more confident, more self-sufficient and independent, and enables them to work in a dignified manner. In this way, the women also gain more respect from their family and community. However, despite consistent
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An extensive paper describing these cases in more detail is currently under review for inclusion in an edited volume. The first author is more than happy to send the full paper to the interested reader after its acceptance.
improvement from PRADAN’s side, the machinery continued to suffer from several problems: energy-loss, failing materials, yarn quality problems, safety issues and physical problems for the reeling women. Therefore, PRADAN sought help from one of their subsidiaries (ICCO, a Dutch NGO), who appointed the first author to re-design the machines. In 2010 the reeling was patented and implemented in the field. Below we will describe the case of the re-designed reeling machine; called the ‘Anna Charkha’. We will first elaborate on the design process and then describe the effect of the implementation of the Anna Charkha from a designer’s perspective. Then we will re-evaluate the case from a capability perspective.
The development of the Anna Charkha
The re-design of the reeling machine took 6 years in total; in 2004 the design process started, and since 2010 machines are running in the field. The silk reeling machine was developed according to ‘basic design cycle’ of Roozenburg and Eekels (1998). Our IDE faculty adopted this design methodology, which encompasses all the phases a design process will go through at least once. The different phases are:
1) The analysis in which the design problem is analyzed and defined;
2) The synthesis in which a temporary design proposal is made and ideas are formed. The best ideas will be chosen and worked out;
3) The conceptualization phase in which the best concept is chosen and elaborated into a preliminary design;
4) The simulation phase in which a prototype is build according to the preliminary design; and 5) The evaluation phase in which the prototype is tested and evaluated.
The analysis started in 2004 by investigating the existing machine, the situation of the target group and other stakeholders, and the manufacturing possibilities. Then ideas were formed to eventually result in three design concepts. A first prototype of the best concept was built in 2006, and a second, improved, prototype was developed in 2008. Then, PRADAN continuously tested and adjusted the prototype, until it was ready for production in 2010. In June 2011, 156 reeling machines were running in 7 villages.
Picture 1: From left to right;
1) traditional method of reeling (palm reeling); 2) old reeling machine; 3) the Anna Charkha; 4) silk yarn produced by the Anna Charkha
The Anna Charkha from a designer’s perspective
The Anna Charkha further improves the yield and quality of the yarn, thus increasing the reelers’ income.7 When the additional profit makes up for the additional costs of the machine,
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Statistics on productivity and income improvement are included in a paper describing this case in more detail. See also footnote 5.
the families have more money available to spend. Thereby, the machine has become more comfortable and easy to use, more energy efficient and the safety improved. The machine is also much smaller and less heavy, and introduces the possibility of producing untwisted yarn. However, re-evaluating the design after its implementation, it became clear that the Anna Charkha —although quite successful overall— still raises two challenges. First, when correctly used, the machine enhances the physical health of the women; the machine use is easier, safer and the ergonomic working position is improved. However, because the women often place the machine on the floor at home, the working position did not improve in the anticipated manner. Second, the easiness to use the machine makes it easier to let young girls run the machines.
The Anna Charkha from a Capability Perspective
Although we do not consider Nussbaum’s (2000) list as final or complete, her list of valuable capabilities was taken as a starting point for the post-hoc re-evaluation of this design project. To complement, the capability indicator lists identified by Alkire (2007) were used. This design project was not executed with the theoretical framework of the CA in mind, but some of the things that are salient from this perspective were already identified during the design process. Other relevant effects became visible soon after implementation of the machine. These aspects are mentioned above. Recently, we re-evaluated the machine from a capability perspective and in this way some additional benefits could be identified. First, due to their ability to run the machine, the women gain more control over their material environment. The machine also gives the women the chance to work on an equal basis to others and to earn additional income. This enhances reeler’s freedom to be involved in decision making and to move around more freely. The additional income also gives them the possibility to fulfil their basic needs, such as healthcare, traditional and cultural practices, and education.
The emphasis of the CA on individual freedom and its discussion of the problem of so-called adjusted preferences highlighted – with hindsight – some additional issues that are relevant to this design-for-development project. The most important is that where the Anna Charkha was developed in such a way that it should provide the reeling women the freedom of choice of working at a reeling centre or at home. It turned out that the women do not actually acquire this choice in reality. Many women themselves actually prefer to work in a reeling centre, where they can socially interact with other women and were they are away from their household chores. However, the family can now restrict the woman to work at home, which is more in accordance to the local culture. Thus, the freedom of women to choose and to move around freely is restricted in the name of culture. And the design of the new machine – by being much smaller and less heavy and therefore transportable to home - facilitates this.
Two other possible effects are identified. These effects still need to be verified, but only came to light due to the capability perspective. First, the easiness to use the machine for young girls might restrict the freedom of choice of the women’s daughters; they might be coerced to work on the machines, or they might choose to work out of concern for their family, instead of going to school or play with friends. And secondly, during the design process, not much attention was paid to the reelers’ control over their environment. By giving the machine the right shape, size and colour, feelings of being scared or uncomfortable to use the machine could be taken away.
Conclusion
As Papanek (1985) said, designers have the possibility to shape tools and environments. The potential of design to develop socially responsible products is therefore a challenge that is worthwhile working on. The case of the Anna Charkha suggests that taking a capability
perspective can sensitize designers to give more consideration to (a) the true needs of the target-group, like in our case for affiliating with other women in the reeling centers and (b) to possible ‘development impacts’ of the design in its context of application, like in our case how culture interferes with the choices that technology seems to offer. In this way, the awareness that the CA raises could support designers in deliberate decision-making throughout the design process. Therefore, we will continue to work on the integration of CA for IDE in a prospective manner.
References
Alkire, S. (2007). Choosing dimensions: the capability approach and multidimensional poverty. Chronic Poverty Research Centre. CPRC Working Paper 88, ISBN 1-904049-87-7.
Alkire, S. (2008). Using the capability approach: Prospective and evaluative analyses. The capability approach: Concepts, measures and applications, 26-50.
Chiappero Martinetti, E., & Roche, J. M. (2009). Operationalization of the capability approach, from theory to practice: a review of techniques and empirical applications. Debating Global Society: Reach and Limits of the Capability Approach. Milan, Fondazione Feltrinelli.
Fernández-Baldor, Á., Hueso, A., & Boni, A. (2009). Technologies for Freedom: collective agency-oriented technology for development processes.
Kleine, D. (2011). "The capability approach and the ‘medium of choice’: steps towards conceptualising information and communication technologies for development." Ethics and Information Technology 13(2): 119-130.
Oosterlaken, I. (2009). Design for Development: A Capability Approach. Design Issues, 25(4), 91-102. doi: 10.1162/desi.2009.25.4.91
Papanek, V. (1985). Design for the Real World; Human Ecology and Social Change (2nd ed.): Academy Chicago. Roozenburg, N. F. M., & Eekels, J. (1998). Productontwerpen; Structuur en Methoden (2nd edition ed.): Lemma,
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