Iraq
Response Innovation Lab
Overview
The Iraq Response Innovation Lab (IRIL) convenes actors around humanitarian problems faced locally through analysis and promotion of innovations and innovators. Iraq is still recovering from conflict, has a fragile economy with high rates of unemployment, and is currently facing two Category 2 crises simultaneously. The ongoing conflict and subsequent mass displacement within the country, and its hosting of over 242,000 Syrian refugees [UNHCR, 2013]. In a country already affected by 35 years of wars, conflicts and sanctions, and as a direct consequence of the recent offenses by the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), 11 million people in Iraq (of which 5.1 million are children) are in need of humanitarian assistance.
The Iraq Response Innovation Lab (IRIL) is an initiative led by Oxfam. In August 2018 a study conducted by Oxfam showcased the complex challenges humanitarian actors in Iraq have, and the great opportunity for innovation. Thus, the Lab was founded in January 2019 with the aim of ensuring innovation is integrated within the local humanitarian contexts. The Lab does this by improving and transforming how response happens, from early recovery and resilience building to supporting cross-industry innovations to solve locally-identified pressing challenges.
Serving the most vulnerable.
Challenges
Developing the preparedness and resilience of the most vulnerable communities takes a dedicated effort to identify the specific challenges faced in the delivery of basic services (healthcare, water and sanitation, power, communications) to remote communities, marginalized groups and other hard-to-reach Iraqis. Community-based organizations, local governments and other entities facing these challenges will need opportunities to uptake local or global solutions that will help to remove barriers to providing these services in an emergency.
Iraq has seen over three decades of war. In the last three years and as a result of ISIS the Iraqi people have been marred with increased ethno-sectarian tensions, increased militarization (formation of armed local militia), displacements and now returnees, lack of economic opportunities, and the ‘fear of a lost generation.’ There are still pockets of rapid onset emergencies within this protracted crisis, Iraq’s post-conflict context is characterized by fragility, sectarian divisions and climatic shocks. The 2019 Iraqi Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) 1 estimates that 6.7 million people remain in need of humanitarian assistance, including 2.1 million in Ninewa and 1.3 million in Salahaddin Governorates respectively. While over 4.3 million people have returned to their communities, approximately 1.6 million remain displaced, with Ninewa hosting the most Internally Displaced People IDPs and returnees. Involuntary returns of IDPs from camps, insecurity and power vacuums combined with recurrent natural disasters continue to cause displacement and areas of urgent humanitarian needs. Integrated long-term humanitarian response, with due attention to gender disparities, is essential for sustainable community recovery and resilience against future shocks.
To date, the following challenges have been identified in Iraq, by the Response Innovation Lab:
Challenge 1: Returnees
How will the 1.9 million displaced people in Iraq return home or integrate into new communities? Returnees face a host of challenges. This includes receiving reliable information on available services, security in their area of origin, reconstruction and rebuilding plans, and the condition of their home.
Challenge 2: Social Cohesion, Protection and Trust
In order to return home and begin to rebuild their lives, displaced people need to feel safe to do so. Given the fracturing of the social fabric by decades of conflict, social cohesion and building tolerance and trust are essential for lasting peace in Iraq.
Challenge 3: Economic Recovery
In an economy reliant on oil and imports, how can other sectors be rebuilt? How do we create sustainable and impactful interventions that create new jobs and build a durable economy?
Challenge 4: Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and Environment
Climate change and drought, agriculture, access to sustainable and clean energy, solid waste management and water treatment are all important issues to be addressed in the Iraq context.
Challenge 5: Cross-cutting themes
Gender, information management, stakeholder coordination, and localization have also been raised by the humanitarian community as key challenges.
The challenges are determined from a mapping of all local stakeholders involved in the response. See “What We Do” for more details.
With solutions
What We Do
Iraq is home to a vibrant and growing community of innovators, many of which are looking to help with the recovery from, preparedness toward and resilience to the protracted crisis. While funding opportunities exists for commercial products, social entrepreneurs and innovative non-profits do not have access to the capital they need to prototype, test and scale their solutions.
The IRIL is a one-stop-shop for Innovators and Entrepreneurs with products and services for humanitarian situations, in addition, it is a physical space for innovators to come together in Iraq.
Convene
Convening all stakeholders involved in the response is the first action the Response Innovation Lab takes. In doing so, the intent is to understand and build the Ecosystem surrounding the response. Through the convening, an Ecosystem Map is produced that highlights who all the stakeholders are, where and how they work. The Ecosystem then works together to identify current challenges that are affecting the population the most, and how and if they overlap with other challenges - we call this the Challenge Map. When the ecosystem and challenges are mapped, the Response Innovation Lab moves into the second function of Matchmaking.
Brokering
The brokering function supports finding and developing solutions to match the identified challenges. Utilizing a team of experts from the humanitarian sector, innovations from other contexts that are piloting, scaling or in production are looked at, as well as those from the local communities that can be incubated and developed. The final tier of solutions are presented to specific stakeholders in the identified challenge, and they select the best solution to move forward. With that final selection, the Response Innovation Lab moves on to its third function of Support.
>> Click here to see a tooling utilized by labs to support matching solutions to challenges.
>> Click here to submit your info as an expert.
>> Click here to learn more about this function in relation to the labs..
Support
The Support function benefits two different groups 1) the selected innovator 2) the challenge holder. For the innovator, the Response Innovation Lab supports their piloting to match the challenge, making sure they understand humanitarian ethics in their approach, and how best to capture monitoring and evaluation. Additionally, support is given in business development, funding, and market entry.
For the challenge holders, the Response Innovation Lab, with support, identifies funding opportunities to pilot the solution (although we recommend this happens prior to the solution identification), and the monitoring and reporting of the impact. Overall, the Response Innovation Labs are capturing information and learnings on the innovation and applying it to the Matchmaker, for further opportunities.
Agribusiness Incubation
Iraq’s economy has its share of challenges and agriculture has one of the biggest shares of these challenges. Agriculture is often described as the backbone of the county. Unfortunately, in Iraq, it is one of the most neglected sectors. Going Green is using our natural resources to a maximized effect, limiting the use of unrenewable resources that will diminish and take a considerable time to replenish. It is also a message that we, as the Iraq Response Innovation Lab, want to encourage the use of any innovation that passes through our program. The use of Green energy in Iraq can be a very practical goal to work towards due to many of Iraq’s natural resources being plentiful, such as solar power, employing that resource in projects can be highly beneficial.
The Agribusiness Incubation is hosted under the GoGreen Initiative to support innovation in the agribusiness sector in Iraq.
Social Enterprise Incubation
An element created from the Agribusiness Incubation is another incubation launched to focus on Social Enterprises in Iraq - the first to take place in Iraq with the participation of Iraqi local NGOs.
The Social Enterprise model is a relatively new model in Iraq. IRIL saw that merging the concept with the existing capacity of local NGOs will enable NGOs’ work to be centered around creating social impact. By increasing understanding of business models and enterprise structure, NGOs will be able to implement their projects and be sustainable without the constant need of relying on large donors.
The Social Enterprise Incubator has launched under the GoGreen Umbrella.
Work For All
IRIL has supported two innovative projects under Madad’s fund, and under the Work for All initiative to support youth’s access to job opportunities and customers. Both projects support opportunities for decent employment by creating a market linkage platform and an interactive job portal.
IRIL has supported these projects by assisting with planning, execution, brainstorming, and the development of concepts, marketing, and funding.
The Iraq Response Innovation Lab office in Erbil.
That affect change
News
![2020 Reflections | Plans [VIDEO]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5d7fba1a7dc0f278f09832df/1614969216656-02DWH98M6AIIQZIVRQKB/2020+Reflections.png)
Scaled impact
Other Innovations
As a part of the Response Innovation Labs support function, both global and local innovators are supported through the labs. Below are a list of innovations the lab is supporting. Please view the Innovation Marketplace to see a comprehensive list from all the labs.
When it’s needed.
Evidence
The Response Innovation Lab uses a system called System for Lab Information Management and Evidence (SLIME) to conduct humanitarian innovation data and analytics from across the labs. You can see this live data of highlighting the response ecosystem and innovations on the following dashboard:
With partners.
Thank you to our partners:
