ghl_partnerships_v3web

ghl_partnerships_v3web

• 1.
  Innovation has hugetransformative potential. Humanitarian innovation can transform the lives of people affected by conflict, complex emergencies and natural disasters. It can empower affected populations to realise their own recovery, and humanitarian relief workers to provide life-saving aid faster, better and more effectively. GlobalHumanitarianLab Enabling bottom-up innovation powered by people, partnerships and networks The Global Humanitarian Lab (GHL) unites the humanitarian sector. It is a partnership between affected populations, private sector, humanitarian organisations and governments. The key challenge The humanitarian sector has made great progress to embrace innovation and effective innovation management. However, the sector has reached some significant systemic barriers that call for new systemic responses. Supporting the GHL will enable it to unite the humanitarian sector to tackle barriers to implementation of innovation, by: • Increasing the capacity to scale humanitarian innovations; • Increasing the probability of sustainable, empowering and effective solutions embedding, due to principles of user-centred design; • Facilitating co-ordination between humanitarian agencies. In doing this, the sector will be able to reduce duplication of effort, break through politics, bureaucracy and silos that hold humanitarian innovation back. The mission To work together to put knowledge, tools and opportunity in the hands of anyone affected by humanitarian challenges. It will foster a holistic, user-centred, open approach to innovation as a means of overcoming barriers faced by affected populations in their daily life and humanitarians in their daily work. It will: • Create an enabling environment within the humanitarian ecosystem for problem solving and innovation to flourish; • Foster a holistic and open approach to humanitarian innovation; • Catalyse a shift from ‘delivery’ to ‘facilitation’ oriented approaches by empowering local communities to solve their own problems; • Facilitate the global crowd to respond to the needs of affected populations; • Break through politics, bureaucracy and silos that hold humanitarian innovation back. The approach • Bringing together Heads of Innovation from partner agencies to streamline humanitarian innovation, overcoming silos; • Embracing partnerships with the private sector to harness expertise, skills and resources; • Convening a (physical and virtual) humanitarian forum to enable dialogue across the humanitarian ecosystem to discuss challenges, solutions developed, lessons learnt and emerging best practices; • Facilitating and providing practical ways to incubate, fabricate, prototype and accelerate innovative solutions for and with the affected populations; • Convening Thematic Labs, chosen by partners. The Labs will engage affected communities to develop solutions across the innovation cycle; • Facilitating access to learning and to digital fabrication tools and related technologies for affected populations and humanitarians in the field; • Leveraging existing international networks, such as Fab Labs, Impact Hubs and Private Sector, to supplement GHL capacity; • Developing a Humanitarian Innovation Kit, which is a deployable incubator, make-space and accelerator; • Sharing tried and tested humanitarian solutions for use by affected populations and humanitarians in the field; • Engaging the Private Sector through Responsible Investing to accelerate humanitarian innovations on a global scale; • Creating an effective solution that can be rolled out on a global basis to ensure return on investment for the Private Sector by creating economies of scale. incubate::make::accelerate
• 2.
  Why it willwork? • The GHL empowers affected populations to realise the potential of innovation in tackling humanitarian challenges. • It brings together networks of humanitarian agencies, corporations, academics, technology enthusiasts, governments and affected populations. • It provides critically needed bridging, brokering, resource mobilisation and knowledge exchange functions to develop the humanitarian innovation ecosystem. • It involves private sector and non-traditional players. • It ensures that the private sector has confidence to invest in humanitarian innovation: that resources will not be wasted; there will be no duplication of efforts; and that affected populations are always at the core of innovation design and iteration processes. Who is funding the GHL? • The GHL is powered by its network. The GHL’s Founding Partners enable the operation of the GHL, through financial and in-kind contributions (including physical space, networks, equipment, pooled resources). • Supporters include the GHL’s Founding Governments of Switzerland and Australia, and private sector partners Hunt Consolidated, Fab Foundation, IKEA Foundation, Impact Hub Geneva, swissnex Boston, swissnex China, swissnex San Francisco, Tent Foundation, Ultimaker, UPS Foundation, Vodafone Foundation and others with more to join. • Private Sector funders will be sourced via Responsible Investing tools and scaleable production contracts. www.GlobalHumanitarianLab.org @HumanitarianLab [email protected] Partners and supporting entities include: GenèveDesign + Government of Estonia, MSF, swissnex boston, swissnex China and the United Nations Office in Geneva.