Written by Alice Obrecht
With contributions from
Alexandra Warner and Neil Dillon
HIF-ALNAP
WORKING PAPER
Over 2015-6 ALNAP, in partnership with Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF), looked at how to define innovation in humanitarian action, and what successful innovation looks like. 15 innovations in the humanitarian sector were chosen as case studies to provide an empirical evidence base for the final research study More than just luck: innovation in humanitarian action.
Following on from this two-year project, ALNAP and the HIF have used the findings to produce two working papers on evaluating and monitoring humanitarian innovation.
This paper looks at evaluating humanitarian innovation, from the perspective of both the evaluator and the innovator. The working paper on monitoring humanitarian innovation will be out in February 2017.
About HIF-ALNAP’s research on innovation in humanitarian action
Over 2015-6 ALNAP - in partnership with Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF) - looked at how to define innovation in humanitarian action, and what successful innovation looks like. 15 innovations in the humanitarian sector were chosen as case studies to provide an empirical evidence base for the final research study ‘More than just luck: innovation in humanitarian action’.
Following on from these foundations, ALNAP and the HIF developed the implications of their research findings for monitoring and evaluating humanitarian innovation processes, producing two working papers on these topics.
The ultimate aim of the research is to improve humanitarian actors’ understanding of how to undertake and support innovative programming in practice. This research partnership builds on ALNAP’s long-running work on innovation in the humanitarian system, beginning with its 2009 study, Innovations in International Humanitarian Action, and draws on the experience of the HIF grantees, which offer a realistic picture of how innovation actually happens in humanitarian settings.
About the case studies
15 case studies, were undertaken by ALNAP in partnership with Elrha’s Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF), exploring the dynamics of successful innovation processes in humanitarian action. They examine what good practice in humanitarian innovation looks like, what approaches and tools organisations have used to innovate in the humanitarian system, what the barriers to innovation are for individual organisations, and how they can be overcome.
The case study subjects were chosen to reflect innovation practice in the humanitarian system. They covered information communication technology (ICT) innovations and non-ICT innovations, and offered a balance between innovations that have reached a diffusion stage and those that had not. They also reflected the wide geographic range of the areas where innovations are being trialled and implemented.