Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies (CHRHS)

Managing Innovation: The Future of Humanitarian Aid

The objective of this project is to develop a training module titled Managing Innovation – The future of humanitarian aid. This training module aims to enhance the understanding of key aspects in initiating, organizing, and managing innovation in the humanitarian sector. The experience of organizations leading the innovations in the humanitarian sector such as Field Ready will be used as a basis in the development of this training module. In addition to the existing literature, the recently published book on “Managing Humanitarian Innovation – The cutting edge of aid’ by Field Ready and Practical Action will be used as a guiding reference to develop learner materials and training presentations. The contents of this training module will include key concepts, why innovation, drivers and types of innovations, process of innovation, and challenges to humanitarian innovation. At the end of the training module, a case study session will be included based on the experiences in the field with required tools and techniques. 

Ultimately, this project aims to bridge the knowledge gap of local makers who have plans to expand their innovations to solve humanitarian problems. The training will also target the beginners in the maker society as well as university and college level STEAM students who are exploring opportunities to enter in the innovation platform.