Feb 9, 2022How to design research to make sure that Humanitarian Innovation gets scaled up?This blog was first published on Oxfam’s From Poverty to Power blog in October 2021. Building on Elrha’s recent learning paper about the role of evidence in scaling humanitarian innovations, this blog outlines how Make Music Matter has used evidence to enable adoption of its innovative Healing in Harmony programme… …4 min read4 min read
Published inElrha·Oct 5, 2021Platypuses are real: the hodgepodge approach to sustainability (part 2)Following my previous blog, Unicorns Aren’t Real, where I dismantled ‘false lessons’ from the private sector, this second blog identifies five more useful lessons for humanitarian innovators. …6 min read6 min read
Published inElrha·Oct 5, 2021Unicorns aren’t real: Four things humanitarian innovators need to unlearn from the private sector (part 1)‘We need to learn from the private sector’ is a message I have heard repeatedly in a decade of working with and for NGOs in different social sectors around the world. There’s an implication that commercial approaches to leading organisations can be replicated in the social space, but the nuance…5 min read5 min read
Published inElrha·May 20, 2021Navigating the journey to scale: can a strategy really make a difference?Abi Taylor, innovation manager for Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund, shares the redesigned selection and support process trialled during the shortlist for the programme’s Journey to Scale initiative, which is designed to accelerate potential humanitarian solutions as they transition to scale. We know it is extremely difficult to drive the widespread…Humanitarian Innovation7 min readHumanitarian Innovation7 min read
Aug 30, 2020Tips for Grant-making Greatness (part 2)This blog was written while I was working with Australian strategic advisory firm Spark Strategy and originally published on their blog in November 2017. sparkstrategy.com.au. I was recently talking with a colleague about how it’s time that we, as a sector, revolutionise our approach to impact measurement. This got me…Philanthropy3 min readPhilanthropy3 min read
Aug 30, 2020Tips for Grant-making Greatness (part 1)This blog was written while I was working with Australian strategic advisory firm Spark Strategy and originally published on their blog in November 2017. sparkstrategy.com.au. I was recently talking with acolleague about how it’s time that we, as a sector, revolutionise our approach to impact measurement. This got me thinking…Philanthropy3 min readPhilanthropy3 min read
Published inElrha·Apr 9, 2020Localisation of innovation management: Bringing together the science of innovation management with the art of community-based resilienceAlmost all problems are best solved by involving the people affected by them in developing the solution. Evidence shows that innovations designed by, or with, end users are more effective and more likely to scale (Smith, A., and Thompson, M: forthcoming). Local and national groups or organisations are often better…Localisation8 min readLocalisation8 min read
Published inElrha·Nov 21, 2019Are donors really the problem? Overcoming barriers to embracing adaptiveness in humanitarian responseThis blog post is part of a series sharing insights from sessions at the Humanitarian Innovation Exchange, which took place on 26 June 2019. The event was jointly organised by Elrha, Leiden University’s Centre for Innovation and the Dutch Coalition for Humanitarian Innovation (DCHI). …Humanitarian5 min readHumanitarian5 min read
