• Collection of 18 essays published by Nesta, the UK’s innovation foundation

• Authors include leading figures from major international charities and foundations, bilateral aid agencies, international organisations, multinational companies and social entrepreneurs.

25 April 2016 sees the publication by Nesta of Innovation for International Development, a new collection of essays bringing together experiences, insights and advice from leading innovators in international development.

There has been a recent surge in innovation initiatives within international development – with new funds, labs, networks and investments being launched regularly over the past few years. But what has this achieved and what lessons have been learned? This new book sets out to explain what innovation for international development looks like, and how to make it work in practice.

CEO of Nesta, Geoff Mulgan, a contributor to the collection, said: “'The development field is under great pressure show that money really is well spent.That pressure has helped to fuel an extraordinary proliferation of creative innovations - using technology, data, citizen engagement and new kinds of finance, whether responding to humanitarian crises or to the longer term challenges of development. But few of these have yet been adopted into the mainstream. We hope that this collection will prompt a lot more practical innovation and more adoption of good ideas that work.”

Drawing on examples from multilateral organisations, bilateral donors, NGOs, companies and foundations, this collection offers a helpful introduction for those new to innovation in development, as well as insights for experienced practitioners.

Innovation in International Development is based around four key themes:

1. Funding innovation - what are the tools and how do they work?

2. Organising for innovation - choosing between strategies, labs, R&D units and roles

3. Harnessing new partnerships and collaborations - from corporations to the general public

4. Scaling and systems change - how to get from good idea to great impact.

Director of International Innovation at Nesta, Kirsten Bound, comments: “The need for innovation to tackle longstanding complex challenges is obvious, yet the learning curve on how to make it happen has been steep. With openness to new ideas, partners and funding models, and with a firm eye on improving evidence and limiting hype, we need to build on experiences like these to ensure a more productive approach to supporting innovation for development in the future. We hope this collection is a first step to a more open, practical and productive conversation about how to make innovation work for development.”

Ben Ramalingam, leader of the Digital and Technology research group at the Institute of Development Studies, said: “Innovation in development is increasingly popular, but has not seen
enough systematic and shared reflection. We hope this book will provide a first step to a more reflective, rigorous and open approach to innovation. Our hope is to build on this, and to work with partners and collaborators across the sector to build on the achievements documented here, and work together to help bring about an international development system that not only does good, but does it as creatively and intelligently as possible. The poor and vulnerable people around the world deserve nothing less from those who seek to help them.”

The collection is edited by Ben Ramalingam of the Institute for Development Studies and Kirsten Bound of Nesta and includes contributions from:

• Dave Ferguson (Centre for Development Innovation, USAID)

• Steven Buchsbaum (The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation)

• Chris Fabien (UNICEF)

• Dennis Whittle and Britt Lake (Global Giving)

• Per Heggenes (IKEA Foundation) and Johan Karlsson (Better Shelter)

• Toby Eccles (Social Finance)

• Sarah Dunn (Children’s Investment Fund Foundation)

• Aleem Walji (World Bank and Aga Khan Foundation)

• Jonathan Wong (DFID and UN)

• Ravi Gurumurthy and Jeannie Annan (International Rescue Committee)

• Lauren Franzel and Alan Brooks (Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance)

• Paul Harvey (High Level Panel on Humanitarian Cash Transfers)

• Marpe Tanaka, Andreas Larsson, Ana Laura Rodrigues Santos (Médecins Sans Frontières Sweden Innovation Unit)

• Ken Banks (Kiwanja)

• Ben Ramalingam (Institute of Development Studies)

• Kim Scriven and Menka Sanghvi (Elhra’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund)

• Geoff Mulgan (Nesta)

The essays will be available to view and download on nesta.org.uk on Monday 25 April 2016

ENDS

Notes to editors

For further information, or if you would like to receive an advance .pdf version of the collection, please contact:

Matthew Hull, Press Officer I +44 (0)20 7438 2543 I [email protected]

About Nesta

Nesta is the UK's innovation foundation. We help people and organisations bring great ideas to life. We do this by providing investments and grants and mobilising research, networks and skills. We are an independent charity and our work is enabled by an endowment from the National Lottery. Nesta is a registered charity in England and Wales 1144091 and Scotland SC042833.

www.nesta.org.uk | @nesta_uk

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