with Jasmine Waddell

Dr. Paul Polak

Dr. Jasmine Waddell

Click here to listen to MP3.
Frederic G. Corneel Memorial Lecture

Out of Poverty:

What Works When Traditional

Approaches Fail

Thursday, September 24

6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

C. Walsh Theatre, Suffolk University
(behind the State House on Beacon Hill)

What makes poor people poor? What can they do about it? And why have traditional international aid programs fallen so short of their promise? These questions drove Dr. Paul Polak to work with thousands of farmers in countries around the world — including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe — to help design and produce low–cost, income–generating products that allow individuals to create their own wealth and build better lives. Innovations such as the $25 treadle pump and $3 small farm drip–irrigation systems have already generated enormous sums of money and helped to raise millions out of poverty. Dr. Paul Polak, writer and founder of International Development Enterprises, joins Dr. Jasmine Waddell, Senior Officer for Research and Learning for the US Regional Office of Oxfam America, to discuss how innovative entrepreneurial practices are empowering individuals to address poverty at its roots.

Related Media:

• Paul Polak: Global Poverty Fighter, BusinessWeek, January 12, 2009
• Out of Poverty: Paul Polak on Practical Problem Solving, YouTube Video (8:39 min)
• Paul Polak, Tackling Global Poverty His Own Way, NPR, April 23, 2008

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