Community engineering: Raising awareness, skills and knowledge to contribute towards sustainable development

摘要

Traditional approaches in engineering product development are not suited to resource-constrained rural villages, as these contexts are complex and very different. There are language barriers, social and cultural differences, lack of infrastructure and limited access to electricity and other basic amenities. This led us to explore a number of engineering projects undertaken for these under-served markets. Our results indicate that a new approach that is more collaborative and one that is community-based is required.