Fed up with the assumption that development ideas seem to flow in only one direction, Colombian Designer Carolina Vallejo is calling for designers, makers and do-ers in developing countries to submit ideas and proposals to help solve the problems of the first world.

The big issues she hopes can be addressed through the competition include Food Pro­duc­tion and Eat­ing Dis­or­ders, Aging Pop­u­la­tion and Low Birth rate, Immi­gra­tion and Inte­gra­tion to Soci­ety, Sus­tain­abil­ity and Over consumption.

“The Dx1W com­pe­ti­tion is addressed to the devel­op­ing coun­tries of the world: All cre­ative solu­tions depend on hav­ing a pow­er­ful idea. Whether it’s great resources, mil­i­tary, pol­i­tics or gov­ern­ment, power and size are not enough with­out hav­ing a pow­er­ful vision. The First World needs our ideas to solve their prob­lems. First World prob­lems demand Sim­ple Third World solutions. From today on The Third World will bring ideas to redesign the future of the First World.”

The Dx1W idea is a breath of fresh air, and I was lucky enough to meet Carolina recently. It was inspiring to hear her vision for developing the idea further into a Community of people working towards solving the worlds problems beyond the first world / third world way of thinking.

The question she asked “What does it mean to be a developing country anyway?” has really stuck with me.
“Among other things it means that the future is to become devel­oped. We are on our way toward devel­op­ment, and we assume that’s a great thing, but let’s stop to con­sider for a minute whether devel­oped coun­tries are some­thing we want to turn into. Are peo­ple in devel­oped coun­tries hap­pier or health­ier? Do they live a bet­ter life? Do they have a bet­ter under­stand­ing of nature and live in a bet­ter equi­lib­rium with the envi­ron­ment? Do they live in peace?”

The winning ideas from Dx1W will go on show in an exhibition in New York later this year, but this of course is just the first step, I can’t wait to see where this goes next.