Appropriate technology
The significance of the execution of Appropriate Technology in its success
Potentially the most important factor in the success or failure of AT is the way it is executed since this mostly determines the results of the project, and funding of aid programmes tends to depend on outcomes). Since I have already identified that AT in principle offers good opportunities to be successful, the actual success of these projects depends on the way they are executed. Generally, this aspect has been performed poorly, which in turn has led to many unsuccessful AT projects. Much of the failure in AT’s execution has come from researchers not properly studying the area where they wanted to employ AT and therefore producing a product that was not particularly useful or was unsuitable for where it was being applied. A clear examp le of these sorts of problems is seen in Browne’s 1983 article, based on a study of a Ghanaian village called Sakorawono. Here, 71% of the population were employed in weaving, a total of 145 full-time weavers and 133 schoolboy weavers, and they used traditional, homemade looms that were cheap to produce and fairly efficient. Two AT projects were developed to try and improve these technologies: firstly, a project based out of the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi aimed to ‘ extend the range of products of the weavers, increase their productivity and promote sales for the domestic market ’ . This was hoped to be achieved by the development of a specialized broadloom that was modified from a traditional English loom and could be locally produced. Villagers were given the training required to use this new type of loom and the hope was that they would return home and spread the knowledge. The project was, however, a complete failure and not a single one of the villagers who were trained to use the new looms wanted to continue using them thereafter. One of the major reasons for this was the cost, which was 20 times that of a traditional loom (Browne, 1983, p.35), and despite a loan scheme being made readily available, the villagers were unwilling to go into debt for any period of time. This exemplifies one of the problems with AT that I mentioned earlier. It is very challenging to create a technology that is efficient and productive while also being low-cost. Furthermore, there was not enough research into the economic state of the area where the AT would be employed and as a result there was no understanding that the additional cost of the AT would make it hugely unpopular. At the time Ghana had 70% inflation: people were struggling to save and afford purchases, and no one was willing to plunge themselves into debt. This supports Eckaus’s view that the AT movement is too focused on producing a technology that could solve the problem rather than considering the wider factors that would determine whether the project would be successful. This lack of understanding of the context in which these looms would be employed is further seen by the fact that the AT looms were designed to produce modern amenities such as tea towels and table napkins, which were not goods in high demand in the area, unlike the uniquely patterned Ashanti cloth that was traditionally produced. Overall, the failure of this project clearly highlights the reasons why AT as a whole has faced a lack of success: there was too little focus paid to the environment in which the technology was to be used or what purpose the locals needed the AT for. Consequently, AT was produced that did not fit people’s needs and ultimately had little to no success.
The second project attempted was even more of a failure. Once again, this project relied on the more modern broadloom design and aimed at trying to recreate traditional Ashanti patterns on such a loom, known as the ‘Kente stole loom’. The problem was that the broadloom, despite being able to create most
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