UNC faculty and students to develop plan to get clean water in po...(the potential to save many millions of l...),Health

Micro-financing and micro-franchising may prove key to getting these life-saving technologies into homes that need them, said Lisa Jones-Christensen, Kenan-Flagler assistant professor of entrepreneurship.

One way we hope to enable these technologies to reach scale is to provide small loans to people who wouldnt qualify for conventional loans, and help them franchise small businesses. Weve found that giving the filters or other technologies away is not sustainable and doesnt really promote the continued use of the technology. We believe we can find models that will be successful in getting point-of-use (home) water purification products into the homes of people who need them, Jones-Christensen said.

Phase I of the project will explore several different business models, including whether microfinance institutions can make it easier for poor consumers to purchase point-of-use water filters and other treatment technologies and whether microfinancing, or microfranchising, can successfully provide seed capital for local entrepreneurs to produce, market and distribute the filters. During this phase, researchers will also look at ways to reduce costs through improved design, production and distribution models.

If Phase I shows promise, subsequent phases will identify in-country partners and pilot implementation of the business plan.

The initial geographic focus of the project will be the Mekong Subregion of Asia, where the Kenan Institute Asia has worked for more than a decade.

The Partnership is about finding private-sector solutions to public health problems, said project director Tom Outlaw, a second-year MBA for Executives student at Kenan-Flagler. Being able to collaborate with world-class faculty from multiple disciplines is why I came to Carolina. And as a student, Im grateful to the Gillings family for supporting such an innovative approach to solving i
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