Engineering a Better Future

by Rob Barnett

The United Nation’s millennium development goals (MDGs) are an ambitious set of goals (see Table 1) aimed at reducing poverty and improving the lives of people living in the world's least developed countries. Thanks mostly to the occasional endorsement by celebrities like Bono, front man for legendary Irish rock band U2, this notion of helping the world’s poorest people has gained some notoriety in recent years.

Earlier this year, while addressing the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Bono challenged, “we’ll be remembered for three things right now: the internet, the war against terror, and what we did or didn’t do about the glorious continent of Africa and its travails. And I think we can be the generation that ends extreme poverty.”

Regina Clewlow, of Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW), agrees with Bono. “Our goal is to engage engineers to address global poverty and sustainable development issues,” said Clewlow.

The Millennium Development Goals

Policy-makers have set some rather ambitious timelines for most of the goals shown in Table 1. Not surprisingly though, poverty alleviation is more than an economic challenge, and without the serious attention of scientific and engineering minds, it is unlikely that the MDGs will be met.

Presently, more than one billion people in the world live on less than one dollar per day, and many of these same people lack access to safe drinking water and proper sanitation. Embedded within the MDGs is the desire to reduce by half the number of people who lack access to safe drinking water by the year 2015. Senate Majority leader Bill Frist, who is also a doctor, addressed this very issue at the WEF. “There are 1.1 billion people today who don’t have access to clean water, and the continent of Africa is an epicenter for that — right now 10,000 kids die everyday [from lack of access to clean water]. I hope this becomes a major issue for all of us,” said Frist.

To put Frist’s challenge in perspective, it would require that infrastructure be put in place at a pace that would provide potable drinking water and other services for an additional 70 million people every year if the 2015 goal is to be met. The sheer magnitude of this problem is daunting, but Clewlow emphasized that engineers had to focus on solutions that were relevant to the environment they are working in. For example, advanced water purification technologies like those found in the United States are not always appropriate in remote parts of the world.

Combating HIV/AIDS is also at the top of the list of the MDGs. Specifically, policy-makers would like to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015. Through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Microsoft Chair Bill Gates has been a leader on this issue. “It’s ironic at the time where science is advancing and we have this great resource of medical understanding that we’ve allowed the AIDS epidemic to get truly out of control — particularly in Africa,” said Gates at the WEF.

Solutions to the Problems

Although almost all of the MDGs require the skills of some type of engineering, some goals specifically require insights from computer and electrical engineers. For example, access to modern energy resources is considered an essential pre-requisite for improving peoples’ lives. At present, nearly two billion people in mostly rural areas lack access to modern energy services.

Engineers and policy-makers agree that developments in off-grid power systems, distributed energy resources, and renewable power sources can help to provide much of the electrification effort. Although more focused on domestic issues, IEEE-USA’s Energy Policy Committee (EPC) has taken proactive stances on many of these energy issues, while acknowledging that “nations with the highest electricity generating capacity tend to have the highest gross domestic product per capita.” [www.ieeeusa.org/policy/positions/electrification.asp]

Other organizations, such as ESW take more of a grassroots approach to development issues. ESW organizes roughly 30 to 50 projects each year that place engineers on the ground in developing countries. Recent projects have included water resource development efforts in Honduras, which involve the efforts of computer scientist and computer engineers to develop control mechanisms for the water system. ESW has also worked in Yugoslavia to develop computer science curricula and increased access to the Internet.

Tsunami Relief

In February, the United Engineering Foundation (UEF), of which the IEEE is a member, contributed $25,000 to the engineering community's collaborative efforts to rebuild schools and other infrastructure destroyed by the Indian Ocean tsunami on 26 December 2004. The engineering community's efforts in the devastated region are being spearheaded by Engineers Without Borders-USA (EWB-USA), a group that partners with disadvantaged communities to improve their quality of life through implementation of environmentally and economically sustainable engineering projects, while developing internationally responsible engineering students [www.ieeeusa.org/communications/releases/2005/uef-022205.asp].

With the help of organizations that shape policy, such as the IEEE-USA, and more hands-on engineering organizations such as ESW and EWB-USA, there can be some optimism that UN’s MDGs might actually be achieved. As Bono said, “we can be the generation that ends extreme poverty.”

For More Information

• Engineers for a Sustainable World: www.esustainableworld.org

• United Nations Development Goals: www.undp.org/mdg

• Columbia Earth Institute: www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu

• Engineers Without Borders-USA: www.ewb-usa.org

Rob Barnett is an associate at CERA in Cambridge, Mass. In 2002, he was IEEE-USA's third Mass Media Fellow, completing a 10-week assignment with Popular Science, the world's largest science and technology magazine. Comments may be submitted to todaysengineer@ieee.org. Opinions expressed are the author's.