A growing movement has taken over the design world about designing with socially responsibility, relevance, and transformation to the lives of those in need. The movement is supported by a lot of high profile projects around the world including Amy Smith of the D-Lab Designs from MIT, Paul Polak of IDE on design thinking, Design for Majority which helped more than 5 billion in poverty, Engineers Without Borders, Architecture for Humanity, and Bryan Bell from Design Corps which train young designers in social issues.
The book Design for the Other 90% by Cynthia Smith showcases innovative solutions to solve problems of the poor and the needed. These designs aim at low cost, open source, utilizing available resources and tools that they can be easily extended, replicated, and even sold by the users. Notable ones include Nawsa Mad in India, an affordable miniature on-farm solution to trap monsoon rainwater and store it for drier season. Farmers in India are able to buy such drip systems for $3 and expand it as their farm size grows, increasing a family's earning by 10-folds in one example. Another well-known project, OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) or $100 laptop, is a socially responsible design for expanding access for technology on an unprecedented scale. One project I was specially drawn by is the Fuel from the Fields. With an initial investment of $10, a farmer can set up a sugar cane charcoal-making venture and begin earning profits in less than a week. The social impact on alleviating poverty and illiteracy of these innovative solutions are immediate and rewarding.