By Seema Kapoor (Innovation Manager, Elrha) and Alessandra Podestà (Innovation Learning Manager, Start Network) — Testing new ways of working has, during the past decade, become a priority and a need for the humanitarian and development sector. Our own organisations are being called to experiment, reflect, and demonstrate possible avenues to meaningfully shift from traditional, centralised, and hierarchical structures towards a more distributed and locally-led…

A Community-Led Innovation Case Study from the Philippines — In Barangay Pandan in South Upi is Lawi Fetinanaan (“Rest House”), an indigenous and natural healing centre, providing healing programmes and services to the community at reduced cost, set up and run by five indigenous women leaders from the Teduray and Lambangian tribes, and supported by the Mindanao Tri-people Women…

A Community-Led Innovation Case Study from Indonesia — The Waste Management with S3R System Innovation was designed and implemented by Forum Komunikasi Winongo Asri (FKWA), based in Kricak Village in Yogyakarta City, and led by Ms. Endang Rohjiani. A team of five innovators — one woman and four men — with skills in community organizing and advocacy, environmental…

Written by Lorenzo Fellycyano. Originally posted by YAKKUM Emergency Unit (YEU) on 9th September 2023. The First IDEAKSI (Idea, Innovation, Action, Inclusion) Programme was concluded on a high note in March 2023. 4 out of 9 innovators with scale-up support have journeyed through various ways to sustain their initiatives. Taking…

Written by Lorenzo Fellycyano. Originally posted by YAKKUM Emergency Unit (YEU) on 11th August 2023. Persons with disabilities in Indonesia have been more involved in society. Increased support by the government can also be seen from the enactment of a law on persons with disabilities in 2016 and a number…

Written by Lorenzo Fellycyano. Originally posted by YAKKUM Emergency Unit (YEU) on 6th July 2023. IDEAKSI — an acronym for Idea, Innovation, Action, and Inclusion — has concluded its first round of nurturing local innovations for disaster management in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. It was launched in 2021 by YAKKUM Emergency Unit…

A Community-Led Innovation Case Study from the Philippines — The idea for this early warning system came about after Typhoon Yolanda hit the remotely located Kinatarcan island, resulting in a loss of communication with the main island of Cebuk, due to a power cut. The system that was developed is less dependent on electricity and utilizes two different modes…

A Community-Led Innovation Case Study from Guatemala — In Palestina, Guatemala, the innovation group “Flor del Monte,” originally composed of eight women, worked to meet the community’s need for a health centre that could assist inhabitants with basic issues, and attend to emergencies when necessary. The town of Palestina is heavily affected by floods and droughts, difficult to…

A Community-Led Innovation Case Study from the Philippines — The Naci Dike in Surallah utilizes existing disaster risk reduction (DRR) technology to build a dike made out of bamboo, which serves as a barrier against the strong current of the Allah River, rendering it less destructive upon reaching the shoreline in the event of a flash flood. Over time…