Session title: Increasing Innovation Adoption in the Sector: A Precursor to Scale, Sustainability and Systems-Level Change
Organizer(s): Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge; Innovation Norway, Response Innovation Lab
7 May 24 09:00-10:30
UTC+2 (Pleniere C)
Over the last decade, the humanitarian
sector has been increasing investment in innovation in areas such as the
establishment of innovation funds and challenges, incubators and accelerators
or the establishment of innovation units within larger humanitarian agencies.
Despite increased investments and existing efforts to increase adoption of
innovations across the sector, many promising and potentially transformative
innovations have been unable to reach their full potential amidst a sector that
struggles with limited or poor incentives to change established ways of
working.
For many humanitarian innovations, the key
pathway to reaching the people most in need of assistance is through innovation
adoption by large humanitarian aid agencies. However, for many innovations,
particularly locally owned ones, adoption is impeded by numerous barriers.
These include insufficient funding, complex procurement processes within
humanitarian agencies, capacity overstretch, challenging regulatory
environments and an overall reluctance to deviate from the status quo of the
established humanitarian system.
Demand-driven local innovation and channels
for uptake within large humanitarian agencies can be a precursor to influencing
longer-term changes in the sector, ultimately leading to more efficient and
more effective humanitarian responses. In this session, Creating Hope in
Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge, the Humanitarian Innovation Programme
(HIP) and Response Innovation Lab (RIL) invites innovators and humanitarian
strategists to discuss strategies and approaches to address these barriers.
· To learn from the perspectives
and insight of the innovators, humanitarian organizations and funders.
· Discuss how we can address
systemic barriers in order to move from isolated innovation projects to wide
scale adoption, and how global humanitarian innovation actors can support the
development of effective and inclusive local innovation ecosystems
· To share CHIC, RIL and HIP’s approaches
and strategies underway aiming to increase innovation adoption in the
sector;
· To learn about new CHIC and HIP
Norway funding opportunities available to catalyze demand-driven adoption in
the sector;
· To synthesize observations and
recommendations for the way forward
Opening remarks:
Keynotes:
Interactive exercise
Panel: Innovator spotlight – Early
adoption
Panelists:Senior Program Manager and Portfolio Lead, GCC
Nicholas Leader, Team Leader of the Humanitarian Research Team at the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office
Max Vieille, Global Director, Response Innovation Lab
Emilie Reeh, Programme Manager at Kumwe Hub (Save the Children)
Utsav Kharel, Somalia Response Innovation Lab Lead Anaïs Matthey-Junod, Energy Officer, NORCAP
