PHAP Online Learning Series on Trends and Challenges in Humanitarian Action: Humanitarian Innovation – an overview

In the context of growing humanitarian needs and increasingly limited resources, finding innovative solutions to reducing human suffering is critical. However, the humanitarian sector lacks organizational frameworks, resources, and tools dedicated to managing innovation, and innovation strategies are rarely systematically adapted and applied to humanitarianism.

The past few years have seen an influx of initiatives looking at fostering innovation in humanitarian action, including the ICRC-led Global Partnership for Humanitarian Impact and Innovation (GPHI2); the Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF); the Humanitarian Innovation Project (HIP) at the Refugee Studies Centre, University of Oxford; dedicated innovation units at UNICEF and UNHCR; and private sector initiatives such as the Deloitte Humanitarian Innovation Program. Given the current interest in innovation, it is important that we understand what we mean when we refer to humanitarian innovation, what the current trends are, as well as the challenges to achieving results in fostering innovation in humanitarian action.

Learning objectives:

• Understand the concept of humanitarian innovation and how it relates to innovation in general.
• Familiarity with the main basic models for the innovation process.
• Have a basic knowledge of the main current initiatives concerning humanitarian innovation.
• Appreciation of the particular challenges related to fostering innovation in humanitarian action.
• Familiarity with the role of ethics in relation to innovation