Innovation is becoming increasingly important in international development co-operation. Without new approaches and technologies, the complex and often inter-connected development challenges of our times cannot be adequately addressed.
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Yet many development organisations are finding the process of innovating long and arduous: innovative approaches or technologies can take years, even decades, before they move out of the “innovation space” and are adopted into an organisation’s normal way of working.
Many development organisations prioritise investments in often isolated pilot projects that are often managed by external experts and not in identifying what institutional capabilities for a specific approach or technology should be attained and then putting an adoption strategy in place.
The ‘adoption of innovation’ challenge is a challenge of public sector capability building and innovation management. Innovation in development co-operation in this context can refer to a novel approach, such as human-centred design, or an emerging technology, such as unmanned aerial vehicles.
Adoption of Innovation in Aid Organisations
In the OECD report The Adoption of Innovation in International Development Organisations, the adoption of innovation refers to the mainstreaming or institutionalising of a new way of working into an organisation, bringing what was once novel to the core of how business is done.
Without the systematic adoption of innovation, these new and effective ways of working will not be able to be fully leveraged or exploited by a development organisation in its programmes, portfolios, and policy work.
Adoption does not refer to a specific innovation in the context of this paper, such as a digital dashboard, or specific solutions. For example the Government of Bihar adopting the women’s health Mobile Academy programme, or Kenya’s embrace of school-based deworming. These examples refer to specific solutions which are scaled up or institutionalised, as opposed to building institutional capabilities on the specific approach or technology overall.
4 Key Innovation Findings
There are similarities in the adoption journey whether for an approach or a technology. Although there are important differences between new technologies or new approaches, there are many parallels when it comes to defining what specific capabilities an organisation should built, which boundaries need to be drawn and the process of moving what was once novel into the mainstream of an organisation.
1. Notable differences between approaches
Approaches such as human-centred design or behavioural science, and technologies, such as blockchain or artificial intelligence relate to how proof-of-concept trials are designed and assessed and how governance processes and stewardship responsibilities are designed within an organisation.
2. A business case for adoption is needed
The business case should reflect a variety of relevant metrics. A specific approach or a technology should only be considered for adoption when compelling evidence is created that it adds value to the mission of the organisation and value to the constituencies targeted, that it is cost- effective and that it has comparative advantage over what is currently being used.
3. Challenges abound
Roadblocks to mainstreaming innovations include:
- Priority of investment in new innovations rather than pursuing a strategic approach to expanding the organisation’s toolbox
- Insufficient investment in establishing a compelling evidence base for the innovation to be adopted
- Lack of incentive to adopt when metrics and hype are built around new innovations
- Loss of expertise and experience when innovation staff move on or change role
- Lack of senior management engagement for multi-year adoption efforts
4. Five clear success factors
Research across DAC members revealed that teams that successfully steered adoption efforts over multiple years pursued similar approaches. Firstly, all reflected on five specific criteria to determine the suitability of the innovation in question: relevance, observability, complementarity, trialability, sustainability. Secondly, all established a realistic vision for adoption and engaged senior management in developing and sponsoring the process.
Thirdly, innovation teams working with the following framework of five organisational factors had greater success in bringing innovations to adoption.
- Clear mandate. Innovation and adoption should be clearly inscribed into the organisation’s strategy and the necessary resources engaged. At least one team needs a specific mandate to drive adoption efforts, which includes change management and organisational capability-building.
- Context. The innovation in question should align with the organisation’s priorities or is itself a priority. A coherent portfolio and the administrative context should enable innovation, with the policies, rules, and regulations in place to facilitate the development, implementation and adoption of innovative approaches and technologies.
- Collaboration. The organisation should build effective internal and external networks to enable learning, information exchange and co-operation across organisational silos.
- Culture of learning. The organisation supports and encourages people and teams to take calculated risks, learn, and share the learning internally and externally.
- Capacity. Key teams have relevant skills, experience, and the confidence to pursue testing the approach or technology in question and to drive adoption in parallel. The organisation ensures sufficient resources in terms of staff and time to provide continuity throughout the adoption journey.
3 Innovation Recommendations
1. Increase focus on the adoption of innovation.
Development organisations should position innovation efforts as a way to advance the 2030 Agenda as well as a contribution to the overall development and reputation of their organisation. New approaches and technologies that add value to the mission need to be made an integral part of the organisation’s toolkit. Bilateral agencies and other development organisations should assess their specific comparative advantages and unique strengths, and use this analysis to inform their vision for the adoption of innovation.
2. Champion innovation adoption and leadership.
Unlocking funding for not only the innovation efforts but also for the internal change processes is necessary for the adoption of innovation. Senior management should lead and explicitly task relevant teams to spot promising technologies and approaches and formulate a future vision of the organisation. Such a vision needs to reflect realistic ambitions, including defining boundaries for the scope of their innovation and institutional capability-building potential.
3. More research is needed
The field of innovation management needs to be further explored and established in the international development sector. This includes improvements in monitoring, evaluation, learning, in different forms of portfolio management and the documentation of innovation adoption efforts, with a particular focus on contributions from innovators based in low and middle-income countries.
A lightly edited executive summary from the OECD report The Adoption of Innovation in International Development Organisations
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