The misfit of innovation

How we’re reclaiming connectivity’s voice in the innovation space.

Illustration by Hans Park

“So, you are all technology officers?”

If your work has anything to do with digital connectivity, chances are you have been asked this question before. For some reason, digital access seems to be a quasi exclusively technology endeavour. I believe, however, that we need to recalibrate our perspective and focus on the other side of the digital equation. A side that is less about tech and more about the people using (or not) the technology itself. It requires us to shift our focus and move away from the hardware so we can see what is at the heart of our work, and reclaim a space for and of innovation within the work of connectivity.

So let’s just break the news now: no, we are not (all) technology officers, and neither do we need or want to be. The extent of my tech knowledge is something I owe to hours of user testing, participant observation, and interviews with refugee communities in settlements or urban areas in East Africa. That’s how you properly unlearn what you had learned so far, you stress-test your beliefs and assumptions about tech, and relearn what matters: context, cultural and linguistic fit, preferences, and usage patterns. You sometimes learn about the limits of technology, of perfectly designed, shiny solutions that don’t work because throughout the process we forgot the other end of technology development. What we call “end user” in fact, should probably be a point of contact at the beginning rather than the end, because this is where innovation truly starts. Creating connectivity solutions in the context of forced displacement can only be innovative when it is an inclusive, collaborative, and human-centered effort. The tech will do its part.

Connectivity: An innovation misfit?

UNHCR’s Innovation Service firmly believes that innovation is not the same as technology and has written about this approach extensively. Since 2016, the Connectivity for Refugees initiative sat alongside innovation at UNHCR and, in practice, is driven by the same values and the same ethos. As this young initiative looks at scale and having a presence across different regions, it is important to take a moment and separate connectivity from technology, and technology from innovation, hoping that the ties between connectivity and innovation become more visible and something that we can nurture in the future.

Not so long ago the idea of providing connectivity to displaced populations during emergencies or protracted crises was new to some, seemed hardly feasible from a cost or infrastructure perspective to many, and sounded unnecessary to others. Today, the idea has gone mainstream and different sectors recognise the potential of a connected refugee population: access to connectivity can improve refugees wellbeing and safety, it can aid delivery more efficient and dignified, and can even represent an untapped market for mobile network operators.

However, putting technology at the centre of the discussion, or aligning efforts towards better infrastructure is not the whole picture.

After three years of testing approaches, ideas, making adjustments in focus and direction, have resulted in an initiative that is young yet has a history and legacy, one that is growing in the present while preparing for a future where “digital” and “uncertainty” become our bread and butter. A future that will require us to be agile and adapt easily, be creative and resilient when confronted with new challenges.

How do we change and prepare for the future? How do we make sure that our work remains relevant and can solve complex challenges?

In its inception phase, Connectivity for Refugees was built around three strategic pillars of digital access: availability, affordability, and usability. Is connectivity available? Is it affordable? Can refugees use it? These questions were good starting points, they told us about the extent to which network, coverage, SIM cards, or mobile phones were at hand. Still, one of the limitations to these questions was the fact that they told us little about the reasons why refugees have access (or not), and decide to use (or not) the internet. Now, if we are to bring change and innovation to this work, we need to first gain a deeper understanding of why things are the way they are and wherein the potential fails in the system are located.

Connectivity for Refugees’ current strategy tries to reflect this shift and evolving thinking towards an approach that, rather than connectivity or tech, is putting people first. If we are able to step away from the “needs” construct and frame digital access in terms of right, then there is so much more to connectivity than infrastructure. We want to know how displaced communities make the decision to connect to the internet, if and to what extent when they provide their data it is out of an informed choice, we want to understand what protection — UNHCR’s main mandate — means in a digital space. This is where a new outlook on connectivity that draws insights from research, field experiments, and strategic communication comes together. That is also when, as an initiative, we can try to shake off some of the legacy and tech-centric narratives and better renew ourselves and our mission.

Reclaiming innovation.

If we are taking a stance and a distance from technology it is to remind ourselves that what we bring to the table is innovation rather (or more) than tech. We believe that for the Connectivity for Refugees initiative to truly fulfill its promises, an innovative mindset is required. So, here are a few principles in guiding the way we do connectivity at the Innovation Service:

1. Humans first, technology second (sometimes last). As much as we can, we go soft on the hard-ware and stay tech-agnostic. We’d rather invest time and effort in understanding our communities and the local context than come in with a heavy tech solution that is not the right fit. Putting humans first also means focusing on their rights, including the one to connectivity and digital participation, and what actions need to be taken for these rights to be upheld.
2. Values drive us. We believe in innovation that is accessible, inclusive, and diverse. The same goes for connectivity. Rather than profit, market potential, user acquisition, or disruption, we focus on the value created and impact on communities.
3. We rely on a network. The Innovation Service facilitates innovation across UNHCR. Similarly, the role of Connectivity for Refugees is to facilitate digital access and inclusion and be a sort of trait d’union between refugee communities and service providers, to encourage collaboration and catalyze change. Connections are powerful: it’s when different people come together, sectors and disciplines converge towards one same goal that ideas cross-pollinate and innovations happen. Intersections is where positive change and magic happen. Connectivity for Refugees is a great example of this: it’s by no means a one man show, and requires a number of actors to work in concert, from refugee and host communities, to governments, to mobile network operators and humanitarian agencies.
4. We stay open and agile. We are not a tech giant. We don’t go into situations thinking “we have the right solution”. We try to encourage conversations about our success and failures with UNHCR operations that work on connectivity. We acknowledge that much of our work is a work in progress, it’s about testing, failing, trying again, and strengthening our resilience muscles. We are confident that, by following the innovation process, through experimentation, small tests and iteration we can hopefully have smaller failures and quicker improvements in the connectivity space too. That’s what we do through the Community Connectivity Fund, for instance, and through that, we create safe spaces to test ideas, cultivate curiosity and a culture that values learning and growth through practice.
5. Sometimes we take leaps of faith. Innovation is by definition about discovery and novelty. Connectivity for Refugees is equally about being deliberate in looking at the unknowns ahead of us and taking a sneak peek into the future of connectivity and displacement. This means that sometimes we feel as if we were walking in the dark with the tiny torch of intuition or hunch guiding us. During these explorations sometimes we come across interesting things, some other times we bang our head against something too. For example, we work with researchers, institutions, and independent writers who can push us beyond and expand our understanding of connectivity for refugees. And who make us look at things we are not yet seeing.

Innovation by default.

Technology is a tool and very often it is a good one. However, innovation is many tools at once and among my personal favourites is the intentional willingness to question and challenge our own assumptions and beliefs. If we look outside the technology focus, we can see how innovation permeates and shapes our approach to providing connectivity to displaced persons. It’s a matter of when, if, and how you decide to use a certain tool. Innovation gives us the skillset and space to address the complexities of both the digital world and displacement. That’s why we think that before tech, connectivity needs innovation.