The Global Alliance for Humanitarian Innovation - Creating More Impactful Innovation Capabilities in the Aid Sector

The sector has reached a plateau in its application of innovation, stranding Aid’s innovators, leaving them unprepared to address many of the most challenging and important problems.

Systems Innovation is particularly relevant for the Aid Sector, where so many aspects of both the capabilities and challenges are entwined in dynamic multi-actor networks. These complex systems are difficult working tools, but they provide a powerful creative foundation where sophisticated innovation practices can be bought to bear on difficult problems.

This is part of a series of three short papers that proposes ways to build out this next generation of innovation practice. The focus is on concrete steps, which initiatives sponsors of innovative change could support to move innovation practices off the current plateau. This paper addresses a range of opportunities in five different areas of system innovation. The remaining two papers look more deeply at the possibilities in innovation labs and innovation funding.