What happens when the informal economy is not criminalized? : Case of Hargeisa, Somaliland
In Hargeisa, the role of the informal economy during and after conflict has been vital to conflict prevention and peace-building. A recently released report by Cardiff University and Somaliland research partners on their work related to the role of urban informal economies in conflict zones offers us perspective from another angle. A little thin on […]
Design policies for a sustainable future
This is an old piece I wrote for the Torino World Design Capital site. It may feel a tad outdated and/or may need refinement, but the gist of it still holds true, imho, we still need to collectively address the challenges of our emerging future and no single country, company or organization can address it […]
India recognizes the economic contribution of street vendors
What Indian economic phenomenon is at once marginal, even illegal, and enormously independent and entrepreneurial? That would be the street vendor, the small capitalist of the poor, and reservoir of off-the-books penalties that grease the machine of every municipal authority and police station in urban India. There are an estimated 10 million street vendors (another […]
Reflections on design thinking for government: empowering policy makers and stakeholders
Yesterday I came across a post on The World Bank’s blog, “Design Thinking for Government Services: What happens when the past limits our vision of the future?” Given that I’m in the process of writing a report on the role that human centered design can play in government, that too for a developed nation, I’d […]
National design and innovation policies: a user centered perspective
I’ve been chewing over Tim Brown’s post on Design Nations since I came across it for the first time yesterday morning. He touches upon Aalto University and Finland in his musings viz., Finland is a great example of a country that has done many of the right things. It has an integrated design and innovation […]
