Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks
HNPW 2025 (17 - 28 March 2025)
          


 
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   (Pleniere C)
 
SessionAbstract

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.


The objectives of this interactive session are:

· 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


Agenda

Opening remarks:
Zainah Alsamman, Senior Program Manager and Portfolio Lead, GCC

Keynotes:
Nicholas Leader, Team Leader of the Humanitarian Research Team at the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office
Rannveig Skofteland, Senior Advisor, Section for Humanitarian Affairs, NMFA – 7 minutes

Interactive exercise
Max Vieille, Global Director, Response Innovation Lab

Panel: Innovator spotlight – Early adoption

Panelists:
- Emilie Reeh, Programme Manager at Kumwe Hub (Save the Children)
- Utsav Kharel, Somalia Response Innovation Lab Lead
- Dr. Iffat Aga Zafar, Co-founder and COO, Sehat Kahani
- Emad Nasher, Program Director for Türkiye & Syria, Field Ready Turkiye
- Anaïs Matthey-Junod, Energy Officer, NORCAP
- Moderator: Therese Uppstrøm Pankratov, Special Advisor, The Humanitarian Innovation Programme

Panel: Adoption at scale

Panelists:
- Dave Mozersky, President and Co-founder, Energy Peace Partners
- Adebayo Adekola, Head, Innovation Portfolios and Governance, UNICEF Office of Innovation
- Fawad Akbari, Senior Director, Humanitarian Innovation and Program Optimization, GCC
- Aimee Jenks, Capacity Building & Technical Expertise Lead, GPA
- Nathalie Rami, Senior Innovation Office, UNHCR (TBC)
- Moderator: Zainah Alsamman, Senior Program Manager and Portfolio Lead, GCC

Closing remarks
Therese Uppstrøm Pankratov - HIP Norway


Speakers


Zainah Alsamman, Senior Program Manager and Portfolio Lead, GCC

Nicholas Leader, Team Leader of the Humanitarian Research Team at the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office
Rannveig Skofteland, Senior Advisor, Section for Humanitarian Affairs, NMFA – 7 minutes

Max Vieille, Global Director, Response Innovation Lab

Emilie Reeh, Programme Manager at Kumwe Hub (Save the Children)

Utsav Kharel, Somalia Response Innovation Lab Lead
Dr. Iffat Aga Zafar, Co-founder and COO, Sehat Kahani
Emad Nasher, Program Director for Türkiye & Syria, Field Ready Turkiye
Anaïs Matthey-Junod, Energy Officer, NORCAP
Therese Uppstrøm Pankratov, Special Advisor, The Humanitarian Innovation Programme
Dave Mozersky, President and Co-founder, Energy Peace Partners
Adebayo Adekola, Head, Innovation Portfolios and Governance, UNICEF Office of Innovation
Fawad Akbari, Senior Director, Humanitarian Innovation and Program Optimization, GCC
Aimee Jenks, Capacity Building & Technical Expertise Lead, GPA
Nathalie Rami, Deputy Head of the Innovation Service, UNHCR (TBC)


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