Adrienne Viljoen’s favourite saying is, “‘n Boer maak ‘n plan,” which she translates as “a man makes a plan”. As manager of the South African Bureau of Standards Design Institute, she believes that Africans have the innate ability to design solutions to day-to-day problems. “People are ingenious at solving problems, but they don’t think in terms of trade,” she muses.
Thinking in terms of trade is Viljoen’s mantra. She makes it her business to ensure that South African designers show their mettle where its needed: facing the development challenges of the region. She wants designers to apply finely honed minds to the basic problems faced by the majority of South Africans and produce products that can be patented, manufactured and put to work.
To encourage local designers, Viljoen was behind relaunching the Design for Development competition in 1997. Now in its third year, the competition focuses on Southern African designers and the specific problems that developing nations face.
“South African designers are still too intent on trade with First World countries. Design for Development is focused on Southern Africa and using the creativity and expertise of Southern African designers to develop the region,” says Viljoen. “The countries of the Southern African Development Community face similar problems We can’t be prosperous in isolation, we need prosperous neighbours, and this is not just about trade – we want to enhance living standards for all people in Southern Africa.”
She is quick to dispense with any romantic notions of what this might mean. “We are not trying to get to the grassroots; we are using technology to design products for grassroots people. This is not about using township craft; we are looking at serious product design and manufacturing.”
Solutions for development must focus on people in living without the trappings of the developed world. Forget electricity, complicated electronics and showy effects. “It doesn’t have to be highly sophisticated, but it must be appropriate, it must be affordable and acceptable to people. That means it must be safe, preferably maintenance free and it must not pose a threat to the user culturally,” says Viljoen.
A previous award-winner from Botswana was a solar-powered hearing aid which gave an hour of hearing after four hours of exposure to the sun. “Hearing aid batteries are expensive and hard to come by. That makes them inappropriate, but the problem with the solar powered aid is that it is bulky and makes it obvious that the person has a problem. They’re working on that now,” says Viljoen.
Design for Development is not a platform for untested innovations. To enter, designs must already have proven themselves in the marketplace, and be produced in significant numbers on a production line. The winners for 1999 are predominantly workhorse products with none of the glamour of some previous winners, like the wind-up radio which has been marketed successfully around the world. Viljoen points out that “the radio would not have been conceived without an extremely high level of technical ability”.
Although South Africa has a small industrial design community, it has come up with some world-class designs, and by winning awards in the Design for Development competition, they get further exposure at international fairs. “South Africa constantly boasts about being the place where the first heart transplant took place, but primary health care is our most pressing problem. Innovation occurs where there is the most need.”
It’s no surprise that primary health care and housing dominated the awards this year. Winners included the Cervitula cervical spatula, designed by a doctor, that makes screening for cervical cancer – the second- biggest epidemic facing South African women, after HIV – easier and more accurate.
Another award went to a product which has obvious worldwide appeal. The Smartlock Safety Syringe has a retractable needle which, after use, is locked inside a sheath with a distinctive click. This innovation means that health workers are less at risk of contracting disease. “KwaZulu-Natal has a negative population growth rate because of Aids. This design addresses the problems health workers face working with HIV/ Aids,” says Viljoen.
Other winners were a lightweight wheelchair, a compressed-soil building brick, a mobile solar water heater and a shovel which addresses safety for miners.
Judges on the panel were on the look-out for “poveteers”, people who make money from the problems of poor people, without addressing the problem itself.
There are products that are sold in large numbers which do nothing to improve the quality of life or address the problems of poor people – they don’t win awards, but they do make money.
Marketing is as important as the design process. A mobile clinic which can access the most remote places won an award two years ago. “It’s really an amazing thing,” says Viljoen, “but it never got off the ground. Success is not guaranteed if a product is not marketed properly.”
Successful First World products are rarely taken up in developing countries, but the opposite is true of designs that come from this part of the world.
The Hippo-roller, a drumlike water carrier designed for developing countries, is distributed by aid agencies, but has attracted attention from Spanish yacht owners.
“That is because all the products are self- standing; they don’t need sophisticated technology or infrastructure.
“We can’t compete with First World designers in making coffee machines and sophisticated products, but we are forerunners in design for development and we have a lot of products to our credit that really address problems.
“We have to forget the notion that product design is about fancy consumer products and concentrate on everyday products.”
There are many definitions of design, but Viljoen likes to think it is about the humanisation of technology.
“People in Southern Africa have jumped straight into the information era; they have missed out on the industrial age – how can we help them cope?” she asks.