If you’re reading this on a smartphone or a computer, chances are that you don’t need to be convinced about the wonders of technology. Still, it’s something we take for granted in the developed world - as we strive to make gadgets slimmer, faster and more energy efficient - but those ambitions can make an even bigger difference in the developing world, and sometimes come in smaller packages.

Here’s a list of inventions and innovations that have been and could be game-changers for the world’s poor…

1. The £15 Smartphone

OK, so there’s been talk of how cheaply-available smartphones could be a game-changer for, well, about as long as there have been smartphones. But that’s for good reason. Putting far-flung emergency services at just a phone call away would get life-saving information to where it needs to be, when it needs to be there. This is good example of how private sector motivations can have a huge impact. 

2. The £23 tablet

Governments also have a role to play in opening access to information. India is currently leading the way in opening up access to the internet - to its population off more than 1 billion - by pushing the development of a cheap tablet to boost internet access to rural areas. 

3. The wind-up radio

After watching a news report about the AIDS pandemic in Africa in 1991, British inventor Trevor Baylis had a lightbulb moment and dashed off to his workshop. When he had finished tinkering, he had invented something that did more to open access to information to millions of people living in poverty than anything that had gone before. No electricity required. Operates on elbow-grease alone! Arguably the biggest game-changer of them all.

4. Homemade sanitary towels

You could be forgiven for thinking there’s a theme here - making what we use cheaper and therefore more readily available - and you’d be right. But there’s more to it than gadgets. Technological innovations have revolutionised even the most basic of things we take for granted. Take for example the school dropout from India who’s probably just revolutionised menstrual health for billions of women, forever, by building a machine that can make sanitary pads for a fraction of the commercial cost.

5. Pee and poo in a bag

Making the technology we deem as indispensable more accessible to those who could truly make the most out of it is a bit of a no-brainer. That’s why these dispensable toilet bags are nothing short of genius for when you get caught short miles away from a loo! They’re biodegradable, too, meaning that the 1.2 billion people on the planet who don’t have access to basic toilets can now do so without polluting local water sources.

Know of any other great inventions and innovations that are changing lives in the developing world? Let us know using the button at the top of the page!

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5 ways technology is changing our world