Nesta has been thinking a lot about innovation in international development over the last few years. In 2016 we published a book looking at the state of the field and drawing lessons from the experience of development funders and practitioners. We’ve also partnered with a diverse range of organisations to build the skills of innovators in the development sector, and to develop tools that can be used by anyone who wants to innovate to solve pressing global challenges.

We’re also interested in spotting new trends and cutting-edge approaches in this space, and so have spent time talking to and profiling individuals and organisations who we consider to be interesting examples of 'development mutants'.

In this blog series, we profile four organisations around the world who are innovating to solve development challenges in interesting ways, drawing on deep local knowledge, continuously experimenting with both technological and non-technological methods, and connecting to global networks in order to try and scale their approach.

We hope they will spark new ideas about how to approach and solve some of the big challenges facing the world today.

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