Localisation of innovation management: Bringing together the science of innovation management with the art of community-based resilience

Abi Taylor
Elrha
Published in
8 min readApr 9, 2020
Senior Researcher — Ms. Charmaine Villamil — at the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Sesimology demonstrating the cascading hazard of liquefaction during The Big One. Credit: PHILVOLCS / Buklod Tao

Almost all problems are best solved by involving the people affected by them in developing the solution. Evidence shows that innovations designed by, or with, end users are more effective and more likely to scale (Smith, A., and Thompson, M: forthcoming).

Local and national groups or organisations are often better placed to bring those affected by specific problems into innovation projects than international NGOs. They are more likely to be part of affected communities. They are more likely to understand the complex realities of people’s lives. They are more able to communicate in a way that is meaningful to people living through crisis. Yet very little innovation funding goes to these actors. Together with the Asian Disaster Reduction and Response Network (ADRRN), we’re determined to change this, and in this blog we explain how.

Both ADRRN and Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF) are deeply committed to the power and potential of bringing together the science of innovation management with community-based resilience initiatives. We have partnered on this foundation to pursue what we call the localisation of innovation management.

Through our partnership, we are able to nurture the talent and ideas of local innovators by working with local and national organisations in Asia to develop solutions to locally defined problems. Together, our aim is to help local innovators flourish, with stronger national and regional systems to support more innovation in the future.

Why is it important to support innovation within local resilience initiatives?

Asia is the most disaster-prone region in the world, and with this comes a great number of challenges for communities (World Economic Forum, 2020). ADRRN’s vision is for the region to become the most disaster resilient region in the world by 2030. The resources to do this, however, are not increasing in line with needs on the ground, and ADRRN has always emphasised the need to innovate to create more impact on the resilience of communities in Asia. That aspiration led to the creation of ADRRN’s Tokyo Innovation Hub, and — since 2016 — the collaboration with Elrha’s HIF to synergise innovation management science and community-based resilience.

The HIF is committed to ‘localising’ our funding and support and increasing the number of grants we award to organisations with headquarters in the Global South. Funding in the humanitarian system is generally skewed towards large INGOs based in regions not usually affected by emergencies — and there is sector wide commitment to rectifying this balance (IASC Grand Bargain, 2016). This picture is replicated in the humanitarian innovation ecosystem. As in the wider sector, creating this change is complex, so progress is slow (ICVA Unpacking Localization, 2018).

Members of the Maps&Cards for DRR team. Credit: Johanna Marie Astrid A. Sister/ProdJx.

A huge variety of impactful innovations are being developed by INGOs, often in partnership with local and national NGOs (L/NNGOs). Such partnerships are great, but we also want to see more L/NNGOs in the driving seat. This is why through the partnership, we invest in supporting innovators in Asian regions experiencing frequent emergencies (HIF Strategy, 2018; ATIH, no date).

We’re not alone in this ambition. The Response Innovation Lab and Start Network are also working to support innovation and innovators from within communities affected by crisis. Our approaches have differences and similarities, and we’re learning from each other as well as from our partners to continually improve our approaches.

Localisation is not a quick fix: what makes a sustainable partnership?

The strategic partnership has so far supported 24 innovation teams from six countries through five workshops, and funded six projects with more grants in the pipeline for this year. Over this time, we’ve invested in getting to know and trust each other. This has really paid off.

We see each other multiple times each year at workshops, we also invest in face to face strategic planning. Everyone looks forward to meeting. Long working days always close with us enjoying each other’s company over dinner and getting to know each other as individuals, not just as representatives of our organisations. In forming such a strong relationship, building trust has been central. In building trust, this personal element is essential.

The strength of our relationships helps us to work across continents and time zones. It helps us to openly talk about what’s working and what could work better — without ego or hierarchy. It enables everyone to question our model and suggest ideas, and in turn we adjust and adapt the work together. This means it can keep evolving and improving year on year.

Over the last two years, we’ve focused on supporting humanitarian innovation in two countries by working closely with what we call ‘Country Focal Point’ organisations: the Centre for Disaster Preparedness (CDP) in the Philippines and the Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS) in India.

Between the four organisations, we’re bringing together a global overview of what works in innovation, with regional expertise and local knowhow to enable the growth of innovation in disaster response and preparedness.

CDP and SEEDS are thematic experts and convenors, nurturing networks within the cohorts of innovation teams to support each other through the programme and beyond. Our hope is that these networks will endure long beyond the direct involvement of the HIF and ADRRN.

What’s the problem, who’s going to solve it?

In each country, we work with teams from local and national NGOs, civil society organisations, universities, entrepreneurs and small businesses. The teams apply to participate in the workshop, each identifying a specific problem they are working to address. At the end of the workshop, teams are invited to apply for grant funding to progress their ideas.

Being the local experts in what matters most to communities, CDP and SEEDS chose the theme for the initiative in each country. For the Philippines, CDP prioritised preparing for ‘the big one’, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake predicted to hit Manilla in the coming decades (The Science Times). For SEEDS in India, the focus is challenges relating to flooding and water scarcity across the country (Asia Times, 2019).

Members of the Maps&Cards for DRR team. Credit: Eric S. Sister/PGS.

In the Philippines, our grantees range from a community based organisation working to identify and communicate risk of liquefaction in their district, to a team of teachers developing a model re-unification plan for students and parents in the event of a major emergency, through to a team of geographers, artists and designers combining participatory mapping and gamification techniques to better include people with disabilities in DRR planning.

Teams in India — who have completed the workshop process and are now applying for funding — are working across urban and peri-urban India. The teams’ focus areas range from improved flood early warning systems, the commodification of wastewater, reintroduction and revitalisation of wetlands, through to managing contamination of water sources in the aftermath of flooding.

How do we bring innovation processes into local resilience initiatives?

In the first six months of our collaboration with innovators, we guide the teams through an innovation journey. We start from rigorous problem recognition and research into existing solutions to similar problems in other contexts, moving through to ideation and the development of innovative solutions. This means workshops, research and, critically, the time and headspace to think and work as a team.

Drawing on the widely tested and developed sets of best practice within innovation, and making it seem relevant to people who are innovating by instinct is a common a challenge in any context (Harvard Business Review, 2020). This is particularly acute in local innovation initiatives. Cracking this problem will be key to achieving the ambition of increasing the number of grants that are secured by innovators based in communities affected by crisis.

We use the HIF’s approach to innovation management to structure the process, drawing on the HIF’s Humanitarian Innovation Guide for tools. But we also look to the national context. We recognise that innovation is everywhere, so part of the role of CDP and SEEDS has been to bridge traditional approaches, local knowledge and international language and methods. This helps us to normalise the idea of innovation, and is similar to the approach taken by Start Network’s DEPP Labs. The DEPP Labs included very practical contextualisation through activities such as ‘inspiration walks’ through the community with the participating teams, looking out for everyday innovations in the local area (Start Network, p. 36).

In India, we had indispensable help from three co-facilitators — staff of SEEDS and RedR India. This national team brings distinct advantages: translation and contextualisation of concepts during the workshops; deepening the national network of knowledge and know-how relating to innovation in humanitarian contexts; and laying foundations for a more permanent resource base to which the innovation teams can turn. We see huge benefits to this approach, but we’ll keep learning with our partners and others to continue to reduce the barriers to innovation.

What’s next for our innovators?

As part of the process, we help the teams to communicate and position their innovations in a way that might unlock access to international funding opportunities. In humanitarian innovation, such funding is frequently dominated by INGOs that can communicate effectively in the language of innovation. We want to address this imbalance.

The final phase in the process is therefore a competitive funding opportunity. We offer a closed call to the participating teams to progress their innovation projects, through which 3–5 teams can access up to £10,000 for a six-month period. This is followed by a further closed call, in which 1–2 teams can access a further year of funding up to £50,000.

We are yet to see how far the teams will progress over the full two years of support. Our first three grantees are mid-way through their projects in the Philippines, and CPD have continued to support the rest of the cohort in other ways. We’ve just come to the end of the workshop process in India and the teams are preparing their funding proposals. We hope to be able to share stories of progress and impact soon.

The more innovation is mainstreamed in disaster response and risk reduction, the more resilient the Asia region will become. By supporting and showcasing innovation within the ADRRN network, we can encourage others to adopt new approaches and look to innovation as a way of unlocking new solutions to complex problems. Our aspiration is to accelerate a network effect that reaches far beyond the individual teams we support.

We focus on innovation because we want to see more positive impact in the communities that we serve. Through renewed perspectives, people figure out the appropriate point to tackle and solve the unsolved. The science of innovation management coupled with the art in community work, are both required to make this happen. That is truly the reason why humanitarian innovation work needs to be localised. The partnership between HIF and ADRRN allows us to follow such a path, not because we have to localise, but because we want to.

This blog was written by HIF Innovation Manager Abi Taylor and ADRRN’s General Secretary Takeshi Komino.

Find out more about the HIF’s localisation work and our partnership with ADRRN.

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Elrha
Elrha

Published in Elrha

We are Elrha. A global charity that finds solutions to complex humanitarian problems through research and innovation.

Abi Taylor
Abi Taylor

Written by Abi Taylor

Humanitarian innovation manager. Grant maker. Author (Managing Humanitarian Innovation, Practical Action Publishing)

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