International Development Archives - Observatory of Public Sector Innovation

Innovation Realized: Expanding the Path to Health Impact

David Milestone — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 10:06:31 +0000

"Innovation Realized: Expanding the Path to Health Impact" is a guide to amplify global health impact. It builds on the successes of USAID's work and lays out practical ways for staff to identify opportunities to apply innovation to solve real problems. The resource has been co-developed with significant input from colleagues across health offices, and captures best practices and innovation opportunities, dispels myths and highlights examples of and resources for innovation in global health. Though this guide is primarily intended for USAID staff, it can serve as an adaptable resource for other organizations.

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Data Playbook Beta

Angela Hanson — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 15:38:10 +0000

The resource was developed for IFRC and National Societies to develop their literacy around data, but it could easily be applied to other organisations. It aims to promote responsible data use and develop data readiness. It has been tailored based on these audiences:
The Data Curious, who needs an ‘on ramp’ to learn and be exposed to the data basics.
The Data Advocate, who sees relevance and and wants to improve their skills and/or offer support.
The Data Active, who are motivated to self-learn and are on their way to being a ‘data-leader’.
The Data Ready, who are ‘trainers’ or ‘data leaders’ who lead data-driven projects and mentor colleagues.
It was heavily influenced by the DIY toolkit, the Atlassian Team Playbook and the Open Organization principles. The content is built to be social and modularised and used in a ‘pick and choose’ method. It includes examples, best best practices, how to’s, slides, session plans, training materials, matrices and scenarios, which are provided in formats that are easily adapted by others.

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Open Government Costing Tool

Angela Hanson — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 15:36:57 +0000

The Open Government Costing Tool is a Microsoft Excel based
application designed to support the collection and calculation of the cost of open government programs. This tool was created as a
companion to the Open Government Costing Framework and Methods, which details an approach to estimating the cost of open government programs. This tool is a template in which users can directly enter data collected on input units and unit costs of an open government program and automatically generate an estimate for the cost of the program. The publisher also offers written guidance on the use of the tool.

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DemTools

Angela Hanson — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 15:36:57 +0000

DemTools is a suite of free, open source software solutions developed by NDITech and distributed for supporting democracy building efforts around the world. The software includes contact management, issue tracking, crowdsourcing, election monitoring, open data, and petition development tools. These were built with the developing world in mind but can also be used in other contexts.
An associated DemTools Guide Book offers an overview of each of the suite of tools, including use cases, user consideration, technical specifications, security considerations, languages/translations, the type of support offered by the publisher, instructions for deploying and hosting the tools and case studies of the tools in practice.
The publisher also offers free and paid hosting service and technical support, but some resources and expertise will be required of the user for setup and ongoing maintenance of the tools.

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Sustainable Livelihoods Approach: A Toolkit for Wales

Angela Hanson — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 15:35:43 +0000

The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach (SLA) is a method of analysing and changing the lives of people experiencing poverty and disadvantage. It is a participatory approach based on the recognition that all people have abilities and assets that can be developed to help them improve their lives.
The SLA Toolkit For Wales provides practical tools to help people with participatory community development. The toolkit describes what the SLA approach is and how it can be used. The appendices then contain all the specific tools for undertaking SLA work, as well as a range of monitoring templates that can be used to track an individual or family progress using the approach.

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Assessing Innovation Potential for Social Impact

Angela Hanson — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 15:35:43 +0000

The resource is intended for those working in the international development or social impact space to assesses the future impact that innovation can deliver in a system. It focuses on three "systems": The Problem Space, The Innovation Space, The Context.
It's goals are to precipitate better understanding of the problem of focus and the context in which it exists, assess enablers and barriers
to innovation, track system change over time, and assess the impact of a program ex post facto. It includes tools and methods organised into different possible "journeys" that define overall related activities, resources, user values and timelines.

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Growing government innovation labs: an insider’s guide

Angela Hanson — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 15:35:43 +0000

This resource gives the real story of how government innovation labs develop in the development context in Eurasia, Asia and Middle East: organic and people-driven, often operating under the radar until safe to emerge. It shares a truthful examination of the twists and turns of seeding, starting up and scaling labs, covering the challenges UNDP faced and their failures, as much as their successes. It includes in-depth histories and lessons regarding 4 UNDP innovation labs.
The resource is meant for those interested in how innovation lab creation might look different in an international development context compared to labs in more developed countries.

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Demand for Health Services: A Human-Centred Field Guide for Investigating and Responding to Challenges

Angela Hanson — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 15:33:19 +0000

This field guide introduces human-centred design as an approach to addressing challenges related to community demand for services (specifically immunization services, but it could be applied to others). This Field Guide exists to help investigate, understand and respond to challenges of demand. It draws on insights from behavioural science and employs human-centred methods to improve immunization outcomes. Includes a 170 page field manual, process map, and workbook with tools. Its process overview poster provides guidance on who to involve and expected time investment for each method in the process.

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Improved Innovation Decision Making

Angela Hanson — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 15:32:08 +0000

The IIDM Toolset was designed as a guide for organisations and individuals seeking to build the capacity of problem solvers to innovate and collaborate more effectively. The Toolset addresses two key components: (1) cultivating an innovator’s mindset, and (2) improving the processes that support decision making along the journey from idea to impact. The publisher asserts that both of these ingredients are vital for decision making to yield improved innovation. The Toolset offers users practical approaches that map to each of the 6 stages of decision making, including adopting the right mindset, generating insights, reframing challenges, developing and testing new ideas, and determining a course of action. The resource was created with a global development organisation structure in mind but is broadly applicable to other organisations interested in building innovation capacity.

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UNDP Foresight Manual

Angela Hanson — Wed, 20 Feb 2019 15:32:08 +0000

This manual introduces strategic foresight as a practice in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It was created with consideration for the resource constraints in developing country contexts, so proposes light-touch and low-cost methods. However, it could easily be applied elsewhere.
The manual features a selection of methods and techniques suited for framing development or policy discussions, but there are many methods and techniques available that are considered part of foresight and futures analysis. These span the gamut from long-term processes and quantitative data collection/analysis to participatory workshops and qualitative assessment of narratives.
It includes a review of different methods, including usage, strengths, challenges and examples of each in practice.

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