Innovation for Development Impact
Lessons from the OECD Development Assistance Committee
The development co-operation community needs to innovate to meet the global challenges ahead. Although it has an established track record for innovating partnerships, funding instruments and technologies, they are not enough to deliver the Sustainable Development Goals. This report synthesises the lessons emerging from an OECD Development Assistance Committee peer learning exercise on how innovation efforts can be strengthened, individually and collectively, to achieve the 2030 Agenda. The report is organised around three blocks – strategy, management and culture; organisation and collaboration; and, the innovation process – and provides recommendations on how innovation can best benefit poor and vulnerable people around the world.
Also available in: French
Context of the DAC peer learning exercise on innovation for development
Innovation for development and humanitarian work is understood as finance and technologies as well as new policies, partnerships, business models, practices, approaches, behavioural insights and methods of development co-operation across all sectors. This chapter explains the genesis of this peer-learning exercise, a priority challenge which Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members identified as urgently requiring more research and learning during its 2017 High-Level Meeting. It outlines the building blocks for strengthening innovation capabilities: strategy, management and culture; organisation and collaboration for innovation; as well as the innovation process from identification of problems to scaling of approaches.
Also available in: French