Compatible Technology International

The bottom billion of the world’s 7 billion people co-exist with the 21st century, but their reality is closer to the 14th century in terms of lack of food, lack of access to safe water, and infant mortality rates some 40 to 50 times higher than the developed world. For many in this bottom billion, limited access to resources has resulted in food insecurity, poverty and malnutrition.

The rural poor have limited land to cultivate and the difference between extreme poverty and a sustainable life can be how their meager produce is processed, stored and even marketed. St. Paul-based non-profit Compatible Technology International works to improve the lives of people in developing countries by designing food and water technologies that are sustainable and appropriate to local cultures.

We don’t help people plant their fields, but we help them handle their harvest in the most efficient and effective ways possible. This results in increased yield, improved nutrition and frequently increased family incomes. Through private donations, foundation grants, and collaboration with in-country organizations, Compatible Technology International is achieving widespread use of our technologies to relieve hunger and poverty in many parts of Africa, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Asia, where its post-harvest processing devices are used on a daily basis.

Compatible Technology International doesn’t provide the bottom billion with fish. Nor does it teach them how to fish. Our focus is providing them with tools and equipment to build fishing poles, process and sell the fish and ultimately provide for themselves. It’s not about hand-outs, but a hand-up. Please join Compatible Technology International in giving people a hand up.