Starting from the why: Innovation Champions from UNLEASH to UNDP
By Raina Fox, UNLEASH talent and Intern at UNDP Arab States
Innovation requires that we look at the world as it is and ask: Why? Why are things this way? How else could they be? What would it take to change the things that aren’t serving us?
In June of 2018, 1,000 young social innovators — what UNLEASH calls “Talents” — from more than 110 countries convened in Singapore for the second annual UNLEASH SDG Innovation Lab to tackle real-world problems by looking beyond the obvious. We asked “why?” over and over again, seeking to transform insights about development problems into innovative ideas to spark tangible change.
The results were inspiring, and vast: with the guidance of facilitators from UNDP, Deloitte, Dalberg, the Carlsberg Foundation, and others, UNLEASH Talents like myself designed and tested solutions to address social problems like refugee civic exclusion, lack of accessibility for people with disabilities on public transportation, and LGBTQIA+ human-rights violations. Some of the solutions that teams designed have since transformed into real products and projects — from digital infrastructure to break cycles of hepatitis-B transmission in the Philippines to designs to expand social space in the Kakuma Refugee camp of Kenya to toilets that turn waste into economic opportunity in South African slums. But beyond the innovations that emerged through this global lab, it is the relationships and networks the experience kindled that have continued to grow.
As part of SDG11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) at UNLEASH Singapore in 2018, I worked with a small, diverse team of peers from Germany, Singapore, Lebanon, and South Korea (based in countries ranging from Kenya to Australia), to identify and frame a social problem, then ideate, prototype, test, and set ourselves up to implement our solution. While I had designed many programs and projects in my past work in non-profits and academic settings, it was the structure of the UNLEASH innovation process itself (which was based on design thinking but included a range of other tools to help us think bigger and dig deeper) — combined with the intentional diversity of our team — that made this experience feel different.
I wanted to deepen my experience of innovation within the development sector, so in November I joined the innovation team as an intern at UNDP in the Arab States. Being a part of the regional innovation team has been an incredible experience — allowing me to deepen and expand my knowledge of design thinking beyond UNLEASH, and to see firsthand how UNDP innovation champions across the region are already pushing development toward new horizons.
Perhaps not surprisingly, many of the UNDP innovation champions I have grown to admire are fellow “UNLEASHers” themselves.
Ali Muntasir (a 2018 Talent) is using behavioural insights to prevent violent extremism in Sudan; Dhafer Hasan (a 2017 Talent and 2018 Facilitator) is leading Innovation for development (#inno4dev) initiatives with youth in Iraq; Lisette Albrechtsen (2017 Talent) is finding new ways to embed a gender lens into initiatives in Jordan; and Zahra Saleh (2018 Talent) is designing digital content to share UNDP’s innovation projects across the region. Jennifer Colville, the regional innovation team lead (2017 Mentor and 2018 Facilitator), and the entire regional network of innovation champions are standing up for the importance of innovation as a lens for all UNDP’s development work.
Regardless of their projects, three things unite these UNDP innovation champions. First, a commitment to looking deeper, and beyond the status quo. They are always asking “why?” and “why else?” Second, they share a belief that even if we haven’t found them yet, solutions exist. To find them, we need to start from the assumption that those most connected to the problem will be at the heart of the solution. Third, real change is possible. But we can’t wait for it to come — we must start from a place of possibility and openness, and to embrace an iterative, reflexive process of testing, learning, and adapting. These are the lenses we exercised at UNLEASH, and which we continue to embody through our work at UNDP.
A phrase that one of our Danish facilitators, Karim Pedersen, used during UNLEASH has stuck with me: we humans are nothing more or less than “divine experiments of dust and spirit.”
If we are the product of the universe’s innovation, why shouldn’t we be able to use our own “dust and spirit” to change the things in our world that aren’t serving us? The innovation champions I have had the honor to meet through UNLEASH and UNDP show me that if we choose connection over fear, ask questions instead of choosing isolation, and are open to the possibility of change, especially in ourselves, we can.
Meet some of the UNLEASH alumni who are now UNDP Innovation Champions across the Arab States
Name: Jennifer Colville
Home Country: USA
UNLEASH Experience: Mentor, Denmark 2017, SDG 12 Sustainable Production and Consumption; and Facilitator, Singapore, 2018, SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities.
UNDP Connection: Innovation Team Lead, UNDP Arab States, and producer of UNDP Colour of Innovation podcast
Lasting Links: “UNLEASH is the gift that keeps on giving. I have participated in both UNLEASH Denmark and UNLEASH Singapore, first as a mentor, then as a facilitator. It has been an incredible platform to advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals with a new generation of leaders and change makers, supporting them in their efforts to contribute to this ambitious global agenda. UNLEASH has also expanded my own network, amongst mentors and facilitators as well as with the talents. I have been fortunate enough to partner with fellow facilitators on social innovation initiatives, for example, on a “future of cities” initiative with an SDG11 co-facilitator, and have also been able to bring young talents on board into the UN system, invigorating our work with their ideas and passion. I hope that I have the opportunity to continue to be part of the UNLEASH family for many years to come.”
Name: Dhafer Hasan
Home Country: Iraq
UNLEASH Experience: Talent, Denmark 2017, SDG4: Quality Education; Facilitator, Singapore 2018; SDG4: Quality Education
UNDP Connection: Programme Analyst, UNDP Iraq
Lasting Links: “Both as a Talent and Facilitator I saw UNLEASH as a checkpoint to see how close or far our work on innovation in Iraq matched up with the rest of the world. For me it was really amazing assurance to see how aligned we were. But what especially stood out was how well organized and developed the content was at UNLEASH — we have since translated some of these materials and are using them in our trainings, including with the Youth Leadership Programme. UNLEASH was also a great example of how UNDP might connect with the private sector on issues like training youth, the SDGs, and innovation more broadly. It is easy to reference UNLEASH now in partnership meetings both internally at UNDP and with the private sector to show that we can do so much more together. I have continued to work with youth participants from Iraq, as well as others in the global UNLEASH network. I think and hope the community will keep growing year after year until we reach 2030.”
Name: Ali Muntasir
Home Country: Sudan
UNLEASH Experience: Talent, Singapore, 2018. SDG 4: Quality Education (winner)
UNDP Connection: Youth Focal point & PAVE Officer, UNDP Sudan
Lasting Links: “One of the special things about UNLEASH was that it brought together people from many cultures and backgrounds to communicate and design solutions together. This was a very complex process because even the notion of time is cultural — for my colleague from Berlin, for example, time is strict, whereas in Africa time is flexible and 40 minutes might mean at least an hour. But working through these differences makes the product better. Now when I have opportunities to work with fellow UNLEASH alumni I know that we will be starting from the shared experience of design thinking in a complex, multicultural context. We immediately bond and our shared values make our work better.”
Name: Zahra Saleh
Home Country: Germany
UNLEASH Experience: Talent, Singapore, 2018. SDG 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities
UNDP Connection: Innovation, UNDP Arab States
Lasting Links: “One of the things I took away from the UNLEASH experience was the realization that it is possible to create impact even with limited resources. Even if you don’t have money, you can generate a good idea, find ways to mobilize resources, attract people, pitch your idea, and move it forward. The process at UNLEASH was difficult, and sometimes we thought we would fail. But in the end it still worked out, because we were passionate and had strong mentorship and inspiration from our facilitators and speakers. Our team is still connected though we are in many parts of the world — Australia, Mexico, Germany/Jordan, Denmark, and Singapore.”
Name: Shashwat Gangwal
Home Country: India
UNLEASH Experience: Talent, Singapore, 2018. SDG 11, Sustainable Cities and Communities
UNDP Connection: Innovation Intern, UNDP Arab States (upcoming)
Lasting Links: “Being selected as one of the youngest delegates at UNLEASH and representing India was an enriching experience to say the least. I got to work with incredible people from all over the world and we are currently pursuing our idea to improve the lives of refugees at camps like Kakuma refugee camp.
UNLEASH is not just about those eight days. It has helped me become a part of an extremely helpful network which has played an important role in my securing an internship with the UNDP Amman Regional Hub in Jordan.”
Name: Lisette Albrechtsen
Home Country: Denmark
UNLEASH Experience: Talent, Denmark, 2017. SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation
UNDP Connection: Gender Analyst, UNDP Jordan Country Office
Lasting Links: “Similar to UNLEASH, UNDP is striving to find new ways of delivering development results through innovative approaches. UNLEASH provides talents with insights into methodologies that can deliver innovation, disruption, and new ways of working, which will benefit any talent in future employment within the development sector.
I’m still connected to the four women that I got to know during the group working/problem solving phase. They are all fierce feminists and we connected over red wine and common ideas about all topics you can imagine. Even now we use the network of the five of us to chat, get updated, support each others’ careers in what is at the moment California, London, Amman, Cape Town, and Sydney. I had such a great time meeting people from all over the world and enjoyed staying in touch with my team and discussing work life as women, entrepreneurs and global careerists.”
About the author:
Raina Fox is an Innovation Intern at UNDP Arab States, a 2018 Unleash Talent, and a Rotary Peace Fellow from the USA currently completing her MA in Peace and Conflict studies at University of Queensland in Australia. She has worked in grassroots social justice, sustainable development, and storytelling for social change for the past 10 years in the U.S., India, Hong Kong, and in the Middle East. She is committed to peace-building and development that holds social justice and inclusivity at the core.
