For technical experts who can help solve humanitarian challenges

 
 

The engagement of technical expertise from around the globe to identify tested solutions and ongoing innovations is essential to our model.  Our country labs (currently in operation: Iraq, Jordan, Puerto Rico, Somalia, Uganda) have mapped the local humanitarian and innovation ecosystems, identified key challenges in a range of humanitarian thematic and operational areas, and engaged with response actors to collaborate on finding innovative solutions. It is at this stage that we need access to volunteer technical experts from your organization in order to maximize the effectiveness of our Matchmaker process.

Ask technical exports from your organization to fill in their information through the link below or contact us to share a list of experts available for consultation that includes name, title, email, technical area of expertise, and geographical expertise.

 
 

The essential role for technical experts

  • Response Innovation Lab Technical Expert Database contains sufficient experts in a range of sectors

  • The Matchmaker platform is able to quickly access a range of technical experts to provide advice on humanitarian challenges in the field

  • Challenge holders (people who have submitted applications into the Matchmaker) are provided a high quality, technically robust solution package containing a range of solutions to their challenge

  • Humanitarian actors have access to vetted solutions that enable them to test new ideas to old challenges within the humanitarian context

 
 

We want technical experts who are

 
 

  • Experienced in given sector (ie WASH, Food Security and Livelihood, Education, Health, Nutrition, Humanitarian Accountability and Safeguarding, Logistics, Displacement/Migration, ICT4D or other)

  • Familiar with the humanitarian, development or emergency sectors

  • Able to write concise, credible and analytical documentation

  • Driven to be creative, collaborative, analytical and results-focused

  • Passionate about improving the humanitarian sector operations

  • Engaged with a global network of experts and knowledgeable about past and current innovations

*Please keep in mind that this position is volunteer based.

 
 

Expectations of our Technical Experts

1. Review the Matchmaker application(s) assigned within your technical field

As applications are received through the online Humanitarian Matchmaker portal, the country Lab Manager together with the Global Program Manager will undertake research using the RIL and other humanitarian innovation databases to try to find a solution that fits the challenge. Simultaneously, the challenge will be reviewed by the relevant technical experts within the RIL Technical Expert database.

2. Provide suggested solutions

Together with the Country Lab Manager or the Global Program Manager, the technical expert will provide suggested solutions/innovations that match the criteria of the submitted challenge.

 The solutions/innovations could be ideas/products/processes that the technical expert has used in the past or has knowledge of as part of their practice.

3. Support analysis and review of the solution package

After undertaking a review of available innovation databases and the solutions provided by the technical expert, the Country Lab Manager (together with the Global Program Manager and other in-country stakeholders) will decide which solution best fits the submitted challenge.

 The technical expert will support the country lab manager to analyse and provide technical insights into the final selected solutions/innovations to ensure that the solution package returned to the challenge holder adequately considers context, technical needs, budget, implementation difficulty etc…


* We expect each Matchmaker submission to require between 6 and 10 hours of the experts’ time. Once a challenge is sent to our technical experts, we expect suggested solutions within 2 weeks.

 
 

 Participating in the global collaborative process will help humanitarian organizations in a number of ways, including:

1.     Facilitating the dissemination/scale-up of proven innovations generated by your own organization and its partners;

2.     Providing opportunities for initial piloting of prototypes developed by your organization and its partners;

3.     Accessing information on innovations available in your sectors of implementation;

4.     Providing your technical experts with exposure to innovation programming in a humanitarian context;

5.     Supporting a collaborative initiative that seeks to embed innovation spaces in every humanitarian response.

 

By contributing their time to the RIL Matchmaker process (and more if they wish), technical experts will:

1.     Be exposed to intellectually stimulating challenges;

2.     Learn about the approaches taken by peer organizations and local partners in their field of expertise;

3.     Have a chance to network with innovators from external organizations;

4.     Suggest, when appropriate, innovative tools and approaches that they champion;

5.     Use the information they helped gather and the RIL methodologies used toward their own programming.