Lab Notes - January edition

The January edition of Lab Notes brings together inspiring blogs, articles and other content for public sector and social innovators around the world, including new evidence on the impact on mobile money services in alleviating poverty in developing countries, and more...

This month's key lab picks

1. A new study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reveals the positive long-term effects that mobile-money services are having on poverty reduction in Kenya, particularly for female-headed households.

2. Rio’s Chief Data Officer provides lessons on how to build partnerships and make better decisions in transport, housing and public health with new sources of data. More in this Centre for Public Impact article.

3. Upcoming events in London: On 27 January Nesta and the University of Oxford will host a free event on how social innovation can tackle inequality and marginalisation. The SIX Wayfinder event will also be hosted by Nesta on 16-17 February, inviting 150 global movers and shakers in social innovation to explore the future of the field.

4. Community-led building projects are providing an alternative model for affordable and equal access to housing around the world. Read about some of the pioneering projects to make it into the final of this year’s World Habitat Awards.

5. The Danish Design Centre has released an ‘Inclusion Toolkit’ which offers city-level policymakers some helpful guidance on getting the most out of using citizen-centred design approaches.

6. How are workers protecting themselves in the context of an increasingly precarious gig economy? This blog from Digital Social Innovation points to some innovative emerging platforms.

7. The Open Governance Research Exchange (OGRX) curates top-quality resources and insights for new ways to solve public problems. Check out the most recent updates to the site, including OGRX Selected Readings from well-known experts in open governance.

8. Businesses that invest in new ideas and experimentation have greater impact in the marketplace - how can better R&D practices also benefit the social sector? A new report from Social Innovation Generation provides a number of inspiring examples from Canada.

9. Speculative design and film ethnography are among Policy Lab’s predictions in innovative policy techniques to gather pace in the year ahead. Read more here.

10. Despite being more than 2,000 miles away, volunteer map makers are making the delivery of aid drastically easier in Chad and in other developing countries.

11. In a context of scarce resources, innovations like the Social Value Exchange offer one potential procurement innovation to help public money go further in creating local impact. More from this Nesta blog.

12. In need of some quick inspiration for the new year? Here are 21 innovations and inventions that helped improve the world in 2016.