Managing humanitarian innovation
An interview with Abi Taylor, Innovation manager with ELRHA’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund
(Podcast version here: https://lnkd.in/e6MRs8R )
We often talk about innovation being a survival issue - but in the context of humanitarian aid it takes on a very literal meaning. Crises, whether natural or man-made, require rapid problem solving if agencies and aid workers are to avoid the huge negative impacts of such disasters.
For a long time humanitarian innovation (HI) took place in a responsive mode, often on an ad-hoc basis; the focus was on the innovations themselves rather than looking for an underlying process which could be mobilised to generate a steady stream of solutions and enable learning between projects. But these days there’s widespread recognition of the importance of learning to manage innovation as a repeatable process, one which builds an important capablility for the future.
In this interview Abi Taylor shares some of her experiences working as Innovation Manager with ELRHA’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund.