Shaping the future: Our strategy for research and innovation in humanitarian response.

A global organisation that finds solutions to complex humanitarian problems through research and innovation..
Our purpose is clear: we work in partnership with a global community of humanitarian actors, researchers and innovators to improve the quality of humanitarian action and deliver better outcomes for people affected by crises.
We empower the humanitarian community. Find out how we can support you...
Play video

Written by Kathryn Ripley, Operations Director, Elrha.

The humanitarian sector is suffering from a common complaint: innovation in the sector, whilst promising, is proving too tough to scale. Is this a true and accurate diagnosis of humanitarian innovation’s current condition, and if so what are the problems we face? More importantly, what can we as a sector do in response?

This is an important question and one we have been actively exploring, and with it in mind, we’re excited to release a new report on the challenges to scaling innovation in the humanitarian sector.

Too tough to scale?

In the report we share insights and examples from our own innovation portfolio, supplemented by inputs and reflections from others, both those inside and external to our sector. Over the last 7 years we have supported around 150 innovation projects at all stages of the innovation cycle including those that have gone to scale. In the report we unpack and share some of the successes and challenges faced by different innovation teams.

Read the report

The barriers to scale

The report outlines 13 discrete problems or ‘barriers’ to scale in the humanitarian system with specific ‘calls to action’ for how these can be addressed. It considers problems at an operational level, such as issues relating to gaps in knowledge and skills, as well as the more systemic barriers that are intrinsic to the humanitarian innovation ecosystem.

The report also covers barriers relating to gathering appropriate evidence of an innovation’s impact, and the significant challenges relating to funding that can effectively support innovation to scale.

Testing comprehension of humanitarian information in Farm centre camp, Maiduguri, Nigeria. Taken from one of our Journey to Scale projects: Translators without Borders Words of Relief. Photo credit: Translators without Borders

A bold ambition

The report concludes that there has been significant progress made on overcoming operational barriers to scale, but very little action has been taken to address the barriers at system level. To achieve transformative change, we need to address these key systemic barriers. To date, these remain both significant and intractable and, importantly, they can only be addressed through collective action and collaboration.

Our commitment is to focus on these more complex challenges as well as call on others in the sector to work with us collectively and in a coordinated way to tackle this tough problem of Scale.

To find out more and be part of this change, watch the recording of our webinar – where we will be discussing this topic further as part of our Innovation Insights webinar series.

Register here.

Subscribe to our newsletters....

Subscribe
 
Elrha © 2018 - 2024 Elrha is a registered charity in England and Wales (1177110). KEEP IN TOUCH Want to stay up to date with our latest updates? Sign up to our newsletters
Elrha
Elrha Please upgrade your browser

You are seeing this because you are using a browser that is not supported. The Elrha website is built using modern technology and standards. We recommend upgrading your browser with one of the following to properly view our website:

Windows Mac

Please note that this is not an exhaustive list of browsers. We also do not intend to recommend a particular manufacturer's browser over another's; only to suggest upgrading to a browser version that is compliant with current standards to give you the best and most secure browsing experience.