MITx: Technology Evaluation for Global Development

When a person lives on less than $2 a day — as some 2.7 billion people around the world do — there isn’t room for a product like a solar lantern or a water filter to fail. Investment in failing products undermines future innovation by reducing confidence and depleting scarce resources.

It’s a challenge faced every day by development agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and consumers themselves. With so many products on the market, how do you choose the right one?

This course, developed by MIT’s Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation (CITE) will explore the fundamentals of technology evaluation for global development. It includes a deep dive into CITE’s 3S methodology, looking at products from three angles:

• Suitability—does a product perform its intended purpose?
• Scalability—can the supply chain effectively reach consumers?
• Sustainability—is it a product that can be used correctly, consistently, and continuously over time?

This course is designed for academics and global development practitioners; those interested in conducting their own technology evaluations to promote data-driven decisions through research or development practice.