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Whistle Stopper - Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail (BK Currents)
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List Price: $27.95
Our Price: $16.95
Your Save: $ 11.00 ( 39% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
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Average Customer Rating: 
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.56
EAN: 9781576754498
Format: Illustrated
ISBN: 1576754499
Label: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Manufacturer: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 232
Publication Date: 2008-02-01
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Studio: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Inspiring book, leaves a little to be desired though
Comment: An inspiring book that makes one think about the greater good that can come out of poverty eradication & how we can all be a part of it.
Criticism:
1. Author does not cover how he made the transition from being a psychiatrist to creating IDE. This makes it harder to understand how one can participate in this cause, even if one wanted to.
2. While the book is a great food for thought, it seems to be more focused on the destination rather than the journey. At times, it reads more like a journal which may be intentional, but this inconsistency gives the reader, a rather half baked impression.
3. Author's disagreement with major organizations such as the UN feel like a rant at times, as he only criticizes them without putting forth any concrete suggestions for bigger issues such as infrastructure (development of roads, bridges, dam development, power generation, healthcare & educational programs).
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The Genius of Simplicity
Comment: Paul Polak allows readers the privileged of a front row seat to his methods of successful innovation while addressing issues of poverty. Here is proof that real genius is in searching for the most direct solutions and insisting on effectiveness. Well worth studying in depth. My copy is now well marked for future application. Bravo Mr. Polak! Thank you for sharing your process.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Practical approach to development
Comment: Polak presents a very concrete approach to development especially on issue of bringing up poor people who are entrepreneurs in their daily struggle for life. With the irrigation of one acre-farm techniques and the slum people creativities, to the designers who can do simple tools well designed for the 90 percent instead of only the main 10 percent whom they are used to design for, Polak brings a new look and fresh understanding to how development experts and agencies need to start listening to local people.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An outstanding summary of 26 years focused on the small plot farmer
Comment: Polak comes from a very practical, farmer-focused perspective that acknowledges the broader poverty debate but puts a premium on what the farmer wants and needs, and focuses on market-based products and solutions that help farmers get out of poverty. The drip irrigation systems, treadle pumps, water storage and other products described in the book are the definition of demand-driven and are offered at prices farmers can afford and in ways that make money for those providing the products. All of the solutions in the book are offered through markets, and always take into account scalability and sustainability (acknowledging the need for some subsidy or other financing mechanism up front to prove the case).
The power of Polak's arguments are in the examples that he weaves throughout the book. (His skepticism of "the experts" comes through in some of the examples in helpful ways as well). After having read a number of the current development thinkers, I would recommend this book above the others for its ability to start with the needs of the poor farmer, highlight solutions, explain why they are sustainable through markets, and issue a challenge to development professionals and product designers around the world for how to make money while also serving the needs of the poor who represent a large and untapped market.
The book made me want to go out and start a business that serves such large unmet needs. I highly recommend the book - a good read and a great, practical, down-to-earth reminder of what matters to people who live on less than $1/day -- affordability and practical use.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Smart, Clear, Revolutionary and Effective
Comment: Paul Polack's Out of Poverty is a straightforward and entertaining presentation of his outstanding discoveries in ending dollar-a-day poverty throughout the developing world. Paul's work over the past twenty-five years has helped millions of farming families invest in their own futures and this book traces his journeys and the profound understandings that became clear to him along the way. His process is revolutionary yet downright practical and simple to implement, and astonishingly effective. It was fascinating to learn how charity can actually create greater need and it is delightfully reassuring to see that his perspectives are launching a new class of thinking in Design,the creation of markets and the eradication of poverty.
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Editorial Reviews:
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Based on his 25 years of experience, Polak explodes what he calls the "Three Great Poverty Eradication Myths": that we can donate people out of poverty, that national economic growth will end poverty, and that Big Business, operating as it does now, will end poverty. Polak shows that programs based on these ideas have utterly failed--in fact, in sub-Saharan Africa poverty rates have actually gone up. These failed top-down efforts contrast sharply with the grassroots approach Polak and IDE have championed: helping the dollar-a-day poor earn more money through their own efforts. Amazingly enough, unexploited market opportunities do exist for the desperately poor. Polak describes how he and others have identified these opportunities and have developed innovative, low-cost tools that have helped in lifting 17 million people out of poverty.
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