This presentation by Martin Fischer, the brother of Harvard Science Faculty member Daniel Fisher, is open to all: The International Business and Development Club Presents KickStarting the End of Poverty Tuesday, October 17, 2006 Harvard Business School: Aldrich Hall 210 5pm - 6pm KickStart Co-Founder Martin Fisher discusses how his organization has enabled over 45,000 African entrepreneurs to generate $46 Million in new profits each year in Kenya, Tanzania, and Mali. To date, KickStart technologies are responsible for new businesses equivalent to over 0.5% of Kenya's GDP, and 0.2% of Tanzania's GDP. In the process, KickStart based businesses have helped over 220,000 Africans escape from poverty and join the middle class in their countries. KickStart innovates on two levels. On a very practical level, KickStart designs, develops and mass markets inexpensive tools that poor entrepreneurs buy and use to create profitable new businesses. Products must be strong and durable, portable, culturally appropriate, ergonomic and since all tools are manually powered, incredibly energy efficient. On a systems level, KickStart has created a revolutionary and truly sustainable solution to poverty using private sector supply chains. Kickstart's flagship product line of "MoneyMaker" manual irrigation pumps enable farmers, on average, to realize a ten-fold increase in net farm income. The social impacts are tremendous. Thanks to the income generated by KickStart's pumps, over 60,000 children are able to attend school because their families can afford tuition, supplies and uniforms. More than 6,000 homes have been built or substantially improved by KickStart entrepreneurs. Families report improved health and nutrition, and even improved relationships, as a direct result of the new income a family earns. Martin holds a B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell in 1979. He earned an M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering in 1980 and a PhD from Stanford in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics in 1985, both from Stanford. After graduating, he received a Fulbright Scholarship to study the connection between technology and development in Kenya in. He stayed in Kenya for 17 years, working for other development programs before starting KickStart (originally named ApproTEC). More on KickStart and Martin's model for development online at http://www.kickstart.org/home/ and http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/itgg.2006.1.1.9