The capacity to see the world around you with open eyes!

This is a quote that will remain etched in my mind for some time. Paul Polak in his book - Out of Poverty! What works when traditional approaches fail - vividly describes his attempts at solving the problems of poverty-stricken people through various examples from around the world. And not surprisingly, he comes up with this amazing quote as a fitting conclusion to his experiences: "Seeing and doing the obvious is probably one of the most difficult things to do."

And in that note, Paul states the following twelve commandments to practically solving the problems of poverty-stricken people:

1. Go to where the action is

2. Talk to the people who have the problem and listen to what they say

3. Learn everything you can about the problem's specific context

4. Think big and act big

5. Think like a child

6. See and do the obvious

7. If somebody has already invented it, you don't need to do so again

8. Make sure your approach has positive measurable impacts that can be brought to scale.

9. Design to specific cost and price targets

10. Follow practical three-year plans

11. Continue to learn from your customers

12. Stay positive: don't be distracted by what other people think

I believe that out of these 12 steps, steps 1, 2, 3, 8 and 9 are especially critical to building affordable houses for the poor in Haiti. Clearly, it is important to visit Haiti and spend ample time with the local population to better understand local demographics, culture and climatic conditions. Pursuing conversations with the local people and understanding their challenges around homelessness would help refine the requirements around building affordable houses. For instance, Paul's visit to homeless areas in Denver and pursuing conversations with Joe made him understand the importance of "..."

Similarly, in Haiti, every house entrance needs to have 2 doors, one for the people to get in and out and the other one for the spirits to leave. Such unique cultural implications can impact the underlying cost of affordable housing.

Finally, it is critical that any affordable housing model should be developed with scalability in mind. In Haiti, there are millions of homeless people and without scale it is difficult to solve the problem of homelessness among these people. Any solution around affordable housing would need to consider the population in its entirety than a small sample segment of the homeless population. The resultant effect of an otherwise smaller solution will greatly expand the rich-poor divide and have greater implications on the empowerment of the Haiti homeless society. So yeah, let us think big and implement bigger!