Evaluating Solar lanterns in Uganda

A team of MIT researchers conducted an evaluation of solar lanterns available in western Uganda for suitability, scalability, and sustainability.

When a person lives on less than $2 a day -- as some 2.7 billion people around the world do -- there isn’t room for a product like a solar lantern or a water filter to fail.

It’s a challenge development agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and consumers themselves face every day: With so many products on the market, how do you choose the right one?

Now MIT researchers have released a report that could help answer that question through a new framework for technology evaluation. Their report details the first experimental evaluations designed and implemented by the Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation (CITE), a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)-supported program led by a multidisciplinary team of faculty, staff, and students.

Evaluating solar lanterns in Uganda

In summer 2013, a team of MIT faculty and students set off for western Uganda to conduct CITE’s evaluation of solar lanterns. Researchers conducted hundreds of surveys with consumers, suppliers, manufacturers, and nonprofits to evaluate 11 locally available solar lantern models.

To assess each product’s suitability, researchers computed a ratings score from 0 to 100 based on how the product’s attributes and features fared. “Attributes” included characteristics inherent to solar lanterns, such as brightness, run time, and time to charge. “Features” included less-central characteristics, such as a lantern’s ability to charge a cellphone.

CITE worked with USAID to select solar lanterns as the product family for its first evaluation. Sanyal says evaluating solar lanterns allowed CITE to learn from USAID’s existing partnership with Solar Sister, a social enterprise that distributes solar lanterns in Uganda, a country where few people have access to light after dark.