The Uganda Response Innovation Lab (U-RIL) at Save the Children implemented the Climate Adaptive Programming and Disaster Risk Reduction (CAP&DRR) project to gain more insight into climate adaptive programming in Uganda. The overall project objective was to build the capacity of refugees and host communities to adapt and mitigate climate change hazards.

Can you transport skills, hope and peace by van? Platform Africa thinks so! The van in question is the organisation's ‘Labmobile’ that is used to bring media training to all parts of Rhino Camp, a large refugee settlement In Uganda on the border with South Sudan. The van carries all the equipment, and expertise, needed to transform any community area into a place for learning about media literacy and media creation. Read full report here.

For 2023, the Uganda Response Innovation Lab (U-RIL) hosted by Save the Children International continued to support those addressing the needs of the most vulnerable people in the humanitarian community through problem and solution analysis, localised adaptation, support to sound innovation models, investment to pilot and scale, and Learning. Read the full Year in Review here.

This landscape analysis explores the status of innovative financing in Uganda, including the key actors, financing mechanisms, instruments, and best practices for financing social enterprises in Uganda. The main objective of this research was to guide U-RIL’s approach to continuing to provide support for innovators and social enterprises in the humanitarian ecosystem. U-RIL sought to answer the main question; “Beyond grants, how else are social enterprises in Uganda being financed?”. Read the full report here.

The Local Innovation Nutrition Solutions (LINS) project aimed to create viable business models to enable the sustainable demand of local nutritious foods in refugee-hosting communities in Uganda. The goal of LINS was to address underlying determinants of malnutrition in refugee children living in Kyaka II and Rhino refugee settlements through the analysis and testing of appropriate small-scale solutions and practices, developed through a human-centered design process. The process aimed to ensure high standards of quality and safety in complementary foods for improved nutrition and associated sustainable business and marketing models. 

Uganda Response Innovation Lab in partnership with Save the Children Uganda, is excited to share with you the 5 innovations in children health and nutrition that will be receiving loans worth US5,000- US$ 10,000. The five winners are Botanica Repellent Company, Ddokolo Distributors Atom Uganda Limited, Prum Ventures, Water Kit, Youth For Life Tree Planting Limited. Here is the Pitch day report

In addition, we have carried out an innovative financing landscape analysis for Uganda to assess, map and analyse the financial market, current schemes, vehicles and actors available under innovative financing to support social businesses and innovations in Uganda including impact investment assessment. The report is currently under review and the insights will be shared in mid January

The purpose of the research is to provide an in-depth overview of how the Entrepreneurship Support Organisations (ESOs) in Uganda are set up, what they offer, to whom, and how. It particularly looks at the state and opportunity of collaboration among stakeholders in the ecosystem, especially among the ESOs, but also with the public sector. Click on the image below to access the report.

The Iraq Response Innovation Lab (IRIL) has completed a study to explore the potential of renewable energy sources in Iraq in the light of their experience with using solar energy for the incubated agribusiness projects in 2021 and the challenges that accompanied that.they encountered.

You can read the full document and a summary of the study by clicking the images below.

The Iraq Response Innovation Lab has identified solid waste management as both a major challenge to tackle and an opportunity to seize for the local innovation ecosystem. To help all types of organizations active in Iraq better understand the scope of the problem and the possibilities that existing and future recycling initaitives can offer, IRIL has published a reflective study on innovative business opportunities in this vertical.

U-Learn recently published the Refugee Engagement Forum (REF) Good Practice Study report which explains how the REF - a two-way feedback mechanism between national refugee response decision-makers and refugee representatives - has innovated Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) in Uganda, by successfully including refugee voices at the most senior refugee response coordination mechanism of the response.

While this pandemic is not without precedent in human history, the novel coronavirus is, as it has fundamentally disrupted and changed our global systems. From history, we learn that during difficult and challenging times, the world and our communities innovate in unique and interesting ways. The stories that come to mind now are more of ad-hoc solutions to very immediate dangers. These tales of quick thinking and decisive action, as well as their aftermath, draw better parallels with the present that can help us see a new way forward.

As originally published on Devex (10 Feb 2021) - Through the establishment of RIL in Uganda, our team has learned a few lessons on integrating innovation into the humanitarian context that we are sharing in a supportive effort around localization.

Written by Jodi Ashley Fleming, University of Copenhagen.

Collaborative private sector-INGO partnerships allow both organizations to combine their valuable expertise and create contextual innovative solutions for a humanitarian and community-based response; something more essential than ever as new types of crises emerge globally. This qualitative study investigated Ugandan private sector attitudes towards partnerships with INGOs to co-create community-based innovations.

Research conducted by Fiona Mwenda and Lydia Tanner at The Research People for the Response Innovation Lab.

The paper begins with a short discussion of what we mean by scaling and why it is not appropriate for every innovation to scale. The paper then outlines the different types of evidence that are important to different audiences, and some of the factors that innovators should consider in prioritizing evidence.

By Max Vieille, Global Director, Response Innovation Lab

RIL’s Global Director dives into the difference between innovation in Silicon Valley, and in the humanitarian space, and how we can better solve identified challenges with a different playbook.

by Response Innovation Lab

If you want to make a change to humanitarian work, or are working on an innovative project, these 10 wisdoms will help give your project the best chance of success. Innovation is not magic, it is a sector with methodologies and processes that can create real large scale change. We’ve put together 10 pieces of wisdom for you as you work on your innovative project in the field, to give you the best chance of success and learn from others who have been through this before!

by Response Innovation Lab

If we do not actively encourage those among us that we can label as innovators or agents of change, then we will always end up with the same results. This guide is a starting point, for all that are responsible for producing innovation within their teams, and those who wish to see the creation of a new way of thinking.

by Response Innovation Lab

Most innovation projects build partnerships and collaborations during their projects. It is important that when you are working with other individuals or organizations, you know what you are bringing to the collaboration and what you want to protect

by Response Innovation Lab

This guide is meant to be a jumping off point for innovating as a humanitarian, providing a how-to for getting started – and ultimately, creating more effective, efficient, timely and appropriate programs for much bigger impact! It is written for humanitarians like you who have little time, but want to do better for the most vulnerable people in the world and always want to create greater impact.

by Response Innovation Lab

The document provides guidance into how Response Innovation lab core staff, members, and partners through its various initiatives adhere to a set of guiding principles, derived by an ecosystem of emerging practice and research.