Less Is More, and the Simpler the Better

The key is to introduce a new idea and get out of the way as soon as those you are assisting can do it themselves. With too many visits and too much help, the groups remain dependent. My team developed a solution that met villagers’ needs and was to be run by women in rural communities who had little or no formal schooling. For them, sticks, seeds, and pebbles were used to quickly tally outstanding loans, a system that proved to be far more accurate than written records. Simplicity translates into scale, low cost, and the spread of ideas by word of mouth.