On the Frontier of Localised Manufacturing
This is a published version of our On the Frontier (OtF) newsletter series. Every month we take one global critical challenge and explore what’s at the cutting edge of it, together. Click here to join the FT Network and receive our newsletter directly.
Localising production in the Solomon Islands
When something breaks in the Solomon Islands, the process of getting the parts to fix it is either long-winded, expensive or both.
COVID-19 highlighted the fragility of global supply chains, which has always been felt acutely by communities living on remote islands scattered across the vast Pacific Ocean. Anything local, like food, is very cheap, and anything imported, like a tap washer, is expensive. There’s very little industry with which to make things on the islands themselves, so people rely on the few big boats that pull in from Australia and Asia on an increasingly infrequent basis.
And while they wait for the boats to bring essential items, young, skilled people are boarding them back to the mainland in search of higher wages, education and opportunities.
At the end of 2024, the Solomon Islands was given its first CNC (Computer Numerical Control) milling machine with support from UK Aid to expand local manufacturing function, provide skilled opportunities and capitalise on the island's incredible resource of world-famous tropical hardwoods.
There's often a reluctance to fund "things" like machinery, but communities can't begin to localise and build resilience to global supply chain fractures without it. And while this is not new technology, using it in a remote location like the Solomon Islands presents a whole new frontier.
🎬 Click here to watch the 5-minute video
Supercharging a fairer Voluntary Carbon Market
With avalanches of plastic pollution cumulating across Nepal, local bio-resin production is the key to introducing a more environmentally friendly alternative to plastic bags. Kathmandu consumes 4.8m plastic bags daily, and the government's ban has done little to dissuade their production. That's because alternatives need to be localised. For a small industry of small players, localising bio-resin eliminates import taxes and incentivises integration into the supply chain. Read more.
After the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, 3D printing offered promise in the most remote areas. It proved that the tech could be set up quickly amid a humanitarian crisis, and technical skills swiftly passed on to local community members. Critical healthcare products were out of reach at the other end of Nepal's limited road network, which sprawls across mountains. Although they could not re-create umbilical cord clamps and tweezers due to strict safety standards, they produced pieces to repair vital medical equipment like baby incubators. The project supported the establishment of Nepal's first Fab Lab, housed in the very shipping containers which delivered supplies during the earthquake. Read more.
In Bangladesh during COVID-19, hyper-localised manufacturing was set up to provide PPE at speed. Its population of 160m+ existed in an already fragile healthcare system, with only eight hospital beds and six doctors per 10,000 people. BRAC was responding to the crisis, but while their PPE needs dramatically rose, global supply chains halted. They turned to a network of local manufacturers across the country, successfully putting distributed manufacturing to a system-level test alongside BRAC's internal processes. Read more.
Crisis cannot be the catalyst anymore
Taxes, pandemics, humanitarian crises and climate change - these shocks seem to be necessary to progress on this frontier, which shows such promise.
However, while localised manufacturing provides adaptability, the sector ironically needs reliability: consistent support for R&D, skills development and funding beyond crisis responses. Studies show that 60–70% of humanitarian operational budgets are spent on procurement and supply chain management. While cheaper supplies may be found across the globe, a deeper "value for money" could be found through the wider impacts and opportunities that localised production has proven to bring.
In his final pilot learnings, Kuldeep, a Tech Specialist at BRAC, shared that "while many humanitarian agencies work on building the capacity of local entrepreneurs and manufacturers, the same agencies with their current procurement policies cannot engage with them in any meaningful way."
He found that small players, though skilled, competent and local, relied on "vendors" who qualified to apply for procurement opportunities. This meant that advocacy to change internal policies and procurement approaches within BRAC became vital to their mission.
And if an organisation that has created social impact for more than 50 years can explore such policy changes, who else can?
📚 Read about Kuldeep's call for advocacy around distributed manufacturing
“We walked into a hospital in Western Kenya. A dozen microscopes were sitting on the shelf unused, and they all had the exact same problem: the adjustment knobs were broken. In 24 hours, we re-engineered and 3D-printed replacement knobs and got them back up to detecting malaria… And the kicker? Four cents. That's how much it cost us to make those tiny little knobs.”
John Gershenson, Kijenzi
Still curious? Here's three more for you
Read an FCDO Pioneer's original story about how he set out to localise manufacturing in the Pacific.
Read our evidence deep dive: Scaling Distributed Manufacturing in the Global South.
See how distributed manufacturing and the circular economy helped create resilience during COVID-19.
Ps. Have you heard about our Helpdesk offer? 🧑💻
The Frontier Tech Helpdesk supports members of the FCDO to explore how emerging technology and innovations can shape their work by providing tailored research, evidence, and advisory support. In fact, the AI for Education topic brief mentioned above was produced in response to a Helpesk request by an FCDO colleague. Click here to learn more and submit a request!
Thanks for exploring with us. We’ll be back next to explore what's On the Frontier of Robotics 🤖
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