Income Is Development ~ KickStart's Fisher...

Thanks to Policy Innovations for spotlighting KickStart co-founder Martin Fisher's Innovations piece, Income Is Development: KickStart’s Pumps Help Kenyan Farmers Transition to a Cash Economy...

"In a cash economy, money is the primary means to securing other vital resources. Except in a few very remote areas of the world, if you ask a person in a poor place what they need most, they will tell you that it is a way to make more money. The way to address the challenge of persistent poverty is to create sustainable income-earning opportunities for millions of people. Income is development."

Winner of the 2008 Lemelson-MIT Sustainability Award, Martin Fisher and colleagues enacted this idea nearly two decades ago by founding KickStart -- today best known for their MoneyMaker Pumps -- and pursuing a powerful five-step systematic approach to ending poverty by boosting incomes:

1. Identify Opportunities ~ What ventures are profitable?
2. Design Products ~ What device or tool makes money?
3. Scale the Supply Chain ~ How do the goods get everywhere?
4. Develop the Market ~ What inspires actually buying?
5. Measure Impact & Repeat ~ Ensuring results & reinvesting!

Since starting, KickStart has sold over 130,000 pumps throughout Kenya, Tanzania, and Mali, and has had substantial impact. Their basic business model can be and is being replicated by others in different geographies and in developing and deploying different product lines. With commercial-mindedness, these ideas can accelerate development everywhere! On a final note, be sure also to see KickStart's full MoneyMaker Pump promo music video featuring Mr Ebbo;-)