Intermediate technology: Small is successful

Abstract

Discussions about technology transfers are generally conducted on the assumption that the technologies being discussed are those that predominate in the rich countries of the world and that the problem is how to facilitate the process of transferring them to the satisfaction of both donors and recipients. Usually, these technologies are increasingly capital intensive, complex and expensive. They require for their efficient operation an elaborate support structure of markets, training, raw materials, supplies, spares and so on. There is also, frequently, an assumption that the technologies themselves are fixed and given factors in the negotiations, and that what is variable or negotiable are the terms upon which the technologies should pass from the ownership of the rich into the hands of the poor; an assumption, that is, that there are no alternatives which might serve the poor countries better and which might also eliminate conflict about technology transfer into the bargain. I suggest that the evidence of the past few years invalidates this 'no alternative' assumption; that intermediate technologies would be more appropriate to the needs and resources of poor countries and that the development of such alternative technologies can avoid many of the conflicts that are inherent in the conventional technologies of the rich countries. Today, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the conventional capital and energy intensive technologies, which still form the main currency of aid and development programmes, are by no means always in harmony with the needs and aspirations of poor countries. This is most obvious in relation to employment. Taking developing countries as a whole, the ILO estimate that about 40 per cent of a total workforce of some 700 million are unemployed or underemployed, working at levels of activity that condemn people to poverty. More than 75 per cent of the 280 million in this poverty trap live in rural areas where seasonal unemployment is often extreme.1 The result is mass migration from the rural areas to the cities, many of which pose insoluble social, economic and environmental problems. Large-scale, capital intensive technologies aggravate these problems. Being city-centred, they are in the wrong place; the kind of goods they produce are generally of the wrong kind to meet the need of the poor; and being expensive and labour-saving, they cannot provide jobs on anything like the scale required. 1 Employment, Growth and Basic Needs. Geneva: ILO. 1976.