In February 2017, 55 people met in London for two days to share learning across different areas of innovation work, and catalyse a community of practice to accelerate innovating in international development. Participants came from government, public sector, not-for profit, philanthropic and private sector, from international development and humanitarian assistance spheres, with shared passion to make change happen.
Sessions at the event were organised around three themes:
- Scaling, replication and diffusion: Different routes to scaling, funding scaling, and “Mini but mighty” (when small-scale and grassroots innovation is right)
- Innovation ecosystems: Ecosystem objectives, what’s needed, and collaboration, trust and relationships
- Risk: Working proactively and adaptively with risks. “Act fast, measure slowly”. Sharing reputational risks. Ethical risks of innovation, and unintended consequences ideas to impact.
The event discussions were rich, reflecting diverse perspectives and operational experience from many sectors around three key questions “what do we already know? What’s working or not working? What do we need to tackle next?
This report summarises key lessons from the discussions.