2016: Diana Jue Rajasingh and Jackie Stenson

Diana Jue Rajasingh and Jackie Stenson

Rajasingh and Stenson's commitment to effective and just last-mile distribution systems emerged as they researched and developed their respective master's projects on urban planning and effective global technology distribution. Rajasingh and Stenson acknowledge the injustice that occurs when projects focusing on the global poor ignore local voices and economies in favor of short-term solutions determined by foreign entities. Thus, Rajasingh and Stenson's work with Essmart engages local consumers, vendors, and technology users as active decision-makers in their product choices and distribution methods. Essmart works directly with local street vendors in India who the majority of households rely upon for their consumer needs. Together with these vendors, Essmart helps to collect qualitative and quantitative data on rural consumption patterns and needs. They then source requested technologies and goods from locally based companies who are able to provide sustainable, relevant, and permanently available products. Essmart's innovative and interdisciplinary distribution model is sustainable and gives developing communities decision-making power in their own well-being and economic growth.

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