Food for Thought on Innovation – A playlist to whet the appetite

by Kate Simpson/

How do you create a culture of innovation, be it in a business, an institution or a country? This was one of the big questions that came up at our recent Change Lab in Kigali – and something I have been pondering on. So here is a short ‘Food for Thought Playlist’ of interesting ideas and unusual people innovating in unconventional spaces.

We would love to hear your thoughts and any ‘food for thought’ examples you have.

Arunachalam Muruganantham – Saw a problem, imagined a solution, built a machine, failed (a lot), ignored some feedback, listened to other feedback, engineered a business model,  ignored old ideas that didn’t work and has created a significant change in the health, education and economic prospects  of rural women in India with health , education and economic impacts. Here is a link to the article:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26260978

Charles Leadbeater- Suggests that ‘the question we ask will shape the answer we get.’ He looks to Kenya, India and Brazil and into some unconventional places for some innovative ideas in how to deliver education, not just in the developing worlds – but everywhere. So our top tip when searching for innovation is to look not to what’s working ‘now’ but to where change is happening ‘now’. Here is the link to his presentation:

Myriam Sidibe – hasn’t invented anything new, but she argues for a new way to use an old solution to solve a big, global problem – but to do this takes innovative thinking and innovative relationships. Take a look at her amazing presentation here:

Steve Chapman – If innovation is a lovely big cake then it needs some ingredients – here Steve adds in the creativity and imagination which on their own aren’t a great meal but altogether make rocket fuel. Read his blog post here:

http://canscorpionssmoke.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/cpr-for-the-imagination/

And finally – this is an old short favorite of mine. Innovation and a culture of innovation is not just about having ideas, it’s about people adopting and getting excited by one another’s ideas – so how do you create a culture where people will adopt, try and follow each others ideas? Take 4 minutes to look at this priceless way to start a movement.

Change Lab Rwanda: how to create public private sector collaborations?

by Kate Simpson/

What do a hotel developer, a community arts innovator, investment manager, a diplomat, several entrepreneurs and a lot of clever, interesting people have in common? They are all part of delivering change in Africa, all interested in creating public private sector collaborations and all came to our first ever Change Lab in Rwanda.

Thank you to all who came it was a lovely evening of interesting people, from diverse backgrounds and organisations exploring, sharing and learning about how the private and public sector can collaborate to deliver change in Africa. We will be doing another change lab here in Rwanda in the new year and bringing it to Nairobi too  – so let us know what topic would you like to see the next lab focus on?

Creating partnerships & building climate change resiliance

by Hamish Wilson/

Partnerships are in fashion. Donors like the idea that, by asking organisations to work together, to share knowledge, expertise, geographical reach and influence- there is the opportunity to create greater impact and deliver more change. Whilst the theory of partnerships may seem simple, the practice is complex. I was recently asked to lead a workshop that would help build a real, working partnership, one capable of working on one of the most challenging issues we all face – climate change.

BRACED (Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Extremes and Disasters) is a DFID funded programme that supports NGOs to build the resilience of people to extreme climate events. To be effective BRACED demands that organisations come together to share expertise and work together to create sustainable and scalable solutions. However, delivering change takes more than commitment to a shared cause. It takes commitment to one another; it takes good understanding and a clear, shared direction; and this is where Wasafiri came in.

BRACED Ethiopia, a Christian Aid-led partnership between ActionAid, King’s College London, BBC Media Action and the UK Met Office- invited Wasafiri to lead a workshop for them. The aim of the workshop was to develop the shared commitment, understanding and direction that they needed if they were to secure full funding for a 3-year BRACED project and deliver real, lasting climate change resilience in Ethiopia.

The ‘BRACED Ethiopia Workshop’ was held in April 2014 in Addis Ababa. Over four days it was attended by more than 40 people representing key partnership members, local implementing partners, government, and DFID amongst others. Wasafiri created a process that was participatory and action-focused. We created the space for organisations to build the relationships and understanding of one another that they would need to work together. And then to build a plan and structure that meant everyone knew what they were responsible for and how they would deliver their part. At times the workshop was challenging, there were issues of leadership and participation to address, and agreement of tangible outcomes to achieve. However through shared commitment, a willingness to listen and learn and the co-creation of a tangible plan – together we built a partnership capable of creating real change.

“Thanks Wasafiri – a lot of high energy work in a short space of time” (workshop participant)

“…we all were fascinated by the quality of Katie’s facilitation, light, embracing, probing deeper in to the issues and alternative ideas as well as proper time management and eventually amazing results” (Country Director, Action-Aid)

 

STOP PRESS: It has just been announced that the partnership has been shortlisted for 3 years of  BRACED funding from DFID.

For more information on BRACED see here

https://www.gov.uk/international-development-funding/building-resilience-and-adaptation-to-climate-extremes-and-disasters-programme

 

photo credit: <a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/ciat/5366738845/”>CIAT International Center for Tropical Agriculture</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/”>cc</a>

Singing, dancing, learning – all at the Wasafiri Retreat

by Kate Simpson/

In August in Kenya we got together with our friends and clients to have some fun building our community and sharing what we have learnt about how to deliver change in Africa. Here is snapshot  www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEqpO1b8utI of what we got up to -For the more serious stuff without all the singing and dancing look out for the Insights Report that we will be publishing soon.

The Wasafiri Retreat – The ‘how’ of delivering change

by Kate Simpson/

What a magical three days of learning , sharing and talking round the camp fire! We have just concluded our annual Wasafiri retreat, which brought together a diverse group of Wasafiri consultants, clients, friends and partners, all of whom are working to deliver change in Africa. Over these three days we shared challenges and successes and together identified some of the key ingredients for creating successful change; and most importantly, how to deliver change in Africa.

The power and the magic were in the people who came. We had participants from a wide range of contexts, countries and sectors, including private sector, government, not for profits and civil society. All of who are African or Africa-based and passionate about the possibilities, opportunities and challenges that face Africa today. Together we shared and listened to stories of delivering change;

  • at a continental scale through Grow Africa;
  • of the BRACED initiative to build climate change resilience and what it really takes to create effective, multi agency partnerships that can work well together;
  • how to strengthen government institutions;
  • and the very real and practical challenges of working in fragile, conflict-affected countries such as Somalia.

And on top of all that we even managed a little singing and dancing to aid all the thinking!

From all this diversity emerged some strong and surprising commonalities about the ingredients for delivering successful change. Watch out for the forthcoming ‘Wasafiri Briefing’, which will offer a summary of the lessons we have learnt over the last year around what it takes to create successful change.

A big thank you to all those who came – I leave inspired about the possibilities and with a greater understanding of what it takes to deliver successful change in Africa.

Book Launch: Civilian Tales from the Front Line

by Kate Simpson/

We are excited to announce that Wasafiri’s own Hamish Wilson has contributed to a new e-book of stories from civilians working on the front lines in Helmand, Afghanistan. “Making Peace in War” has been a labour of love; and is a compilation from a wide range of characters – none of whom are professional writers  but who offer a rich mix of raw tales and insights.

Check it out here; Making Peace in War

Grow Africa – a multi-billion model worth replicating?

by Ian Randall/

“Grow Africa, your immense contribution to African agriculture is exemplary.”

Akin Adesina, Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture

 Grow Africa has received some remarkable and enthusiastic plaudits. Yet what is it about it that has enabled it to rapidly deliver change at scale, where so many others have failed?

Grow Africa can claim some big numbers. In May 2014, they announced that, during 2013, the partnership’s private sector commitments to invest in African agriculture doubled to a total of $7.2 billion. Of which $970 million was already invested, creating 33,000 new jobs and reaching 2.6 million smallholder farmers across 10 countries. At Grow Africa’s Investment Forum, leaders, including five Heads of State heralded this as remarkable progress for an initiative that is barely 2 years old. Raj Shah, head of USAID, stated that Grow Africa has shown that “success at scale is now possible. This effort can effectively end poverty and hunger in Africa.” Amena Mohamed, the UN Secretary General’s Special Advisor for post-2015 MDG planning, saw Grow Africa as a model to replicate to ensure that the vision for next MDGs could rapidly translate in to action, in a way that traditional development approaches have not proven able.

For Wasafiri, which has played an instrumental role in conceiving and managing Grow Africa, these accolades are clearly affirming and gratifying. Nonetheless, such unbridled enthusiasm begs the questions “What has made Grow Africa such a success?” and “Why is its approach not adopted more widely to deliver change on other systemic challenges?”

A recent article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review entitled “Shaping Global Partnerships for a Post-2015 World” examined Grow Africa alongside five other pioneering cross-sector initiatives to ask how to unlock collective impact at a global scale. It concluded, “The most important condition is establishing a backbone structure that acts as the glue, holding the partners together and ensuring that the other four conditions are in place. The backbone provides strategic coherence around the common agenda, establishes shared measurement and learning systems, supports the mutually reinforcing activities of the different partners, and facilitates continuous communication.”

While Grow Africa certainly embodies all those features, I believe the story of its success is more complex. Or rather, I think there are underlying aspects of the global political economy that usually subvert the emergence of such elements when people attempt to collectively tackle change at scale.

Alignment of interests

Grow Africa is blessed by emerging at a moment of alignment for political, commercial and social interests. The 2008 food crisis changed the underlying economics of agriculture. The world realized that Africa must become a global food basket if we are going to feed 9 billion by 2050, while accommodating changing consumption habits, and linking food to energy through bio-fuels. Enlightened businesses – small and large – realized that African agriculture was going to grow, and they had a strong commercial interest in being in the vanguard. Africa’s politicians serve citizens who are primarily rural, and half of whom are under 20. Their political imperative is to increase rural incomes and generate jobs, or risk wide-scale unrest and disaffection. And for development aficionados, agriculture represents the best opportunity to reduce poverty and hunger. Everyone from smallholders to multinationals, and from African Heads of State to G8 Development Ministers, could rally behind Grow Africa’s common agenda of accelerating investment for sustainable agricultural growth. The only sustained dissonance has come from a few Western-based, ideologically-driven voices who fundamentally distrust the private sector.

Few other global issues currently benefit from such alignment. Climate change is riven with competing interests and public health issues struggle to attract strong commercial engagement. However, the same would have been said about African agriculture a decade ago. Perhaps part of the secret is sniffing out the right historical moment when interests align, and then to forge global partnerships to drive change at scale as fast as possible while the political window of opportunity lasts.

Coalition of the willing

Grow Africa is also unusual in welcoming all parties, without finding itself paralysed by the outcome. Many multi-stakeholder initiatives end up crippled by one of two effects. Firstly their governance often demands consensus, which means they become hostage to minority interests. For example, whilst a reasonable number of governments and actors seemed willing to act on climate change, negotiations, in attempting to accommodate everyone’s demands, have either ended up in a stalemate or conceding to the lowest common denominator. Secondly, successful initiatives are asked to layer on issue after issue, until their mandate is too diffuse and complex to meaningfully deliver anything. CAADP (Africa’s overarching plan for agriculture) is at risk of this as it is expected to address issues as varied as nutrition, climate change, job creation, regional trade, tertiary education, natural resource management.

So far, Grow Africa has evaded these pitfalls. Its clear focus on the commercial and development opportunity presented by agricultural investment, has allowed it to welcome all parties who are committed to advancing the agenda – a coalition of the willing. Co-convened by AUC, NEPAD and the World Economic Forum, but serving a wide range of stakeholders from Farmers Organisations to Multi-nationals to donors, it has created a space in which minority voices are heard, but that majority interests then drive action.

The World Economic Forum’s role in this cannot be underestimated. Most influential development actors are effectively civil service in culture – whether governments, African institutions, donors, or multilaterals. Too often their accountability pressures are to avoid obvious failure, rather than to deliver results at scale – leading to an aversion to taking risks, a focus on appeasing all interests, and a default towards extending timelines rather than making swift decisions. The World Economic Forum brings a refreshing private sector orientation that, whilst very protective of reputation, is ultimately dependent on showing it can deliver.

For more insight into the work of Grow Africa, view the latest report

Shaping the future of International Stabilisation

by Hamish Wilson/

Wasafiri’s Director Hamish Wilson has been invited by the UK Government to help facilitate an international conference to consider the future of stabilisation. Co-hosted with the Government of Denmark, and joined by representatives from NATO, the EU and the United Nations, the event, to take place in late June, will explore lessons and best practice emerging from contemporary stabilisation operations in Somalia, Mali, DR Congo, South Sudan and others.

In doing so, the event will examine how stabilisation has contributed to conflict prevention and resolution, and will seek to establish a common approach and shared principles for actors engaged in stabilisation.

Hamish has recently concluded a two-year assignment with the British Embassy in Somalia as Senior Stabilisation Adviser and is leading Wasafiri’s efforts to help improve the delivery of stabilisation approaches in fragile and conflict affected states.

Changing attitudes, changing lives: HIV, stigma and faith communities

by Hamish Wilson/

22.9 million[1] people across Africa are living with HIV. The social stigma associated with HIV means that for many people living with HIV is not just about their health, but also about their livelihoods, their home, community and family. Reducing the social stigma of HIV supports those affected by HIV to gain work, earn a living, live with those they care about, talk about their status, access the care they need, and ultimately to live with HIV. In turn, this increases the willingness of others to get tested, to discuss HIV prevention and hence to tackle the spread of HIV.

Reducing social stigma is hard. In many communities, faith provides the backbone to people’s attitudes and behaviour and so faith leaders and faith communities have remarkable influence over beliefs around HIV. By refusing to acknowledge HIV or through messages linking HIV with morality, faith can drive stigma. Consequently CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) in partnership with GNP+ (Global Network of People living with HIV) created the ‘Stigma Reduction Initiative’. This programme was launched in Kenya, Ethiopia and Zambia and used a peer to peer approach, based on people living with HIV ‘surveying’ others also living with HIV about their own experiences of stigma, discrimination and faith. The findings from the surveys were then shared with faith leaders who were supported to develop action plans to reduce stigma and discrimination in their communities.

Katie Chalcraft of Wasafiri Consulting was asked to evaluate the impact of the Stigma Reduction Initiative. We found a notable improvement in the HIV-related knowledge, attitudes and practices of the faith leaders involved in the initiative in the 3 pilot regions. More specifically, among the people living with or affected by HIV involved in the survey in Adigrat (Ethiopia) and Ibenga (Zambia) there was a general decline in exclusion from from social, family and religious activities, and improvement in the psychosocial aspects of peoples quality of life and increased uptake of HIV testing in the target communities.

For more information about Katie Chalcraft and her work please visit her profile here

Lead for CAFOD on this work was Georgia Burford. To learn more about CAFOD and their work with faith communities and on stigma reduction visit here