This document discusses innovation at the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Ethiopia. It begins with an agenda setting out the topics to be covered, including why innovation is important, principles of innovation, and examples of innovation approaches. The document emphasizes that innovation is about meeting needs and finding solutions, not just technology. It provides examples of innovations that addressed various social needs. It discusses UNDP's approach to innovation, including identifying bottlenecks, analyzing problems, and prototyping ideas. It outlines several UNDP innovation initiatives from 2013 to 2017 that funded innovative projects in various African countries. It promotes a network of innovation hubs across Africa and sharing knowledge between countries.

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Innovation at/for (UN) Ethiopia
Marc Lepage, Africa knowledge & innovation advisor
Africa Regional Service Center, Addis Ababa
September 2017

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Agenda
•Setting the stage
•Innovation in Africa:
it’s already happening!
•What more can we do –
way forward

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Why innovation?

4. 4
• SoPs
•“Lessons learned”
• CoPs
• Good practice
?
KM
Complicated
Complexity
Codification
Complex
Procedure
The old world…

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• SoPs
•“Lessons learned”
• CoPs
• Good practice
?
KM
Codification
Complicated
Complex
Procedure
Complex world, sophisticated clients
Complexity

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Principles

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• No Innovation in Isolation. We innovate to do
Development Better. Innovation is about
needs and solutions.
• Innovation is not high-tech. Innovation is 5%
technology and 95% imagination. Social
Innovation is about Behavioural Science.
• Steal with Pride! The best knowledge is
probably outside the room. Partner to deliver.
Reach out to the young crowd.

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Innovation is
about Needs
and
Solutions
Innovation = New approach + Unmet social need
Principle 1

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THE NEED
Cheap, affordable
and clean
electricity for low
income families
Access to Energy

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THE NEED
Share information
on hot spots and
safe zones during
a crisis
Crisis Information

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THE NEED
Differentiating
between genuine
and fake drugs
Health Security

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Mine detection

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THE NEED
Decent toilets in
low-income urban
centres
Urban Equipments

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THE NEED
Decent &
affordable
housing for low-
income urban and
rural dwellers
Housing

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THE NEED
Improving access
to clean water
Hippo Water Roller Project

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Medical supplies delivery in rural areas

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UNICEF U-report
THE NEED
Engaging with
citizens

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Visualizing Budget in Kenya
THE NEED
Making Budget
Understandable

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Innovation in policy

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Innovation Approaches

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UNICEF « first 72 hours »

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USAID Ebola challenge

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Innovation challenge Namibia?

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UNDP open innovation policy

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Malawi innovation fund

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Crowdfunding

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crowdlending

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Behavior insight

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Big data/visualization/data for SDGs

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Satellite imagery+big data

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chatbots

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Principle 2
Innovation is not about Technology: it’s about
Imagination and Behaviour

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foresight

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Camel Game

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Citizen engagement in Liberia
THE NEED: Improving citizen
engagement with budgetary planning

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Development impact toolkit

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Youth & peace & innovation

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YouthConnekt

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Principle 3
Steal with Pride
(and learn!).
Knowledge is
outside. Hire
young people.

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The Road to Innovation
Don’t start with “Let’s
innovate”
Support Innovators
Don’t buy high-tech gadgets Imagine the Future
Don’t go full scale without
prototyping
Take calculated risks

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Innovation at UNDP
• Innovation in what we do and how we do!
• Innovation in programme design: design
thinking, co-design..
• Innovation in programme communication:
real simple reporting (beneficiaries reporting
continuously, directly)
• Innovation in M&E: micro narratives..
• Innovation in operations

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Our approach to Innovation

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Identifying bottlenecks

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Analyze points of pain

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Innovation
Government
donor agencies
Private
Foundations
Social
Venture
Capitalists
Corporate
Social
Investment
Governments
Social Innovators
Regional & Global
Organisations

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Network of Innovation hubs
& Centers across Africa.
Credit: WhiteAfrican.com

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Innovation Hubs?

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Prototype the Idea
Create an Environment
where it is safe to fail and
support the Innovators

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Prototype!

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Incubate

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Innovation @ UNDP Africa

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2013 Africa bureau innovation knowledge fair
• 54 submissions from 35 country offices
• Panel: senior Africa bureau – online
voting to select 5 participants for face
to face meeting
•Live voting by UNDP country office
seniors to decide between Rwanda,
Cameroon, Zambia, Cap Verde, Kenya
•75,000 USD awarded to Rwanda
country office (youthconnekt)

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2014 innovation facility fund
•45 submissions from 25 country
offices
•Africa bureau/global Innovation
group/innovation advisor Addis
review
•1,000,000 USD awarded

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2014 innovation initiatives
(1/2)
1. DRC: A narrative based methodology involving people’s
stories and allows both qualitative and quantitative data
collection and analysis
2. Cote d'Ivoire: Placing the discussion of gender-
sensitive policing services on the parliamentarian and
public agenda
3. Kenya: Livestock Insurance Products (Garrisa County,
Northern Kenya)
4. Mauritius: Building a more resilient society through
innovative education tools promoting the culture of
prevention
5. Sao Tome y Principe: Monitoring transformative impact
on development programmes

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2014 innovation initiatives
(2/2)
6. Senegal: Promotion de l’entreprenariat social à travers
la production locale d’équipements solaires dans la
zone de Mekhé
7. Swaziland: Establishment of a Youth Innovative Hub for
inclusive development
8. Zimbabwe: Towards an ICT4D Policy and Practice
Platform: A Collaborative Public-Private Partnership
(PPP) Model Seeking to Leverage ICTs as Driver for
Economic Development in Zimbabwe
9. Burundi: Open challenge on rural energy access
10.Rwanda: Foresighting for development
11.RBA NY: One Click Away: Design, Evaluation,
Reporting

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• The use of Foresight in Mauritius allowed to planned the
civil service of the future
• Young farmers in Zimbabwe used technology to transform
farming practices
• The Malawi innovation resilience lab introduced new
processes to come up with innovative solutions to natural
disasters
• Cape Verde used an innovative approach to consolidate
and visualize various information sources related to climate
change adaptation initiatives
• Planning the scale up of clean energy initiative in Burkina
Faso proved that going to scale in the business of
innovation requires careful planning
2015 innovation initiatives

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• Women working as Ylang Ylang pickers in Comoros were
empowered to be involved in the process improvement
towards energy efficiency
• People with disabilities were empowered to start their own job
creation initiatives in Nigeria
• An electronic platform in Benin aimed at reducing gender
based violence
• A justice and empowerment lab was set up in Botswana to
assist women victims of gender based violence
• Visualization of governance and peace tracking poll data in
Ghana allowed for increased engagement of stakeholders
• Our office the Democratic Republic of Congo led our internal
process improvement towards increased efficiency of our
operations
2015 innovation initiatives (con’t)

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2016 innovation fund
• Rwanda Youthconnekt regional scaling up
• Promote intra region “peer to peer” support in the
area of innovation
• RBA CO and/or partners join RBAS/RBEC
innovation events
• Scale up fund: support the development of
scaling up plans of innovative initiatives.
• Support to foresight for SDGs
• Support IGAD with the setup of a resilience lab
with our UNDP-IGAD Climate Prediction Center
(ICPAC).

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2017 Africa grants from IF
• Angola (together with the HHD team): A Low-Cost
Behaviorally Informed Intervention to Improve
Tuberculosis Treatment using Randomized Control Trials
• Botswana: Closing the Gap on National Data
Deficiencies - Enhancing Data Generation, Quality &
Availability for Decision Making
• Cape Verde: Launching Diaspora Bonds for Achieving
the SDGs
• Mauritius: Development of a Citizens Reporting
Mechanism to Assess Impact of Public Service Delivery
to the Poor
• Rwanda: Internet of Things (IoT) for Water Management
and Climate Change

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UNDP hacker’s toolkit

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No more…

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undp.org/innovation

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Famous last words…

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THANK YOU! Questions?
marc.lepage@undp.org
@marclepage

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innovation strategy