Tools, Publications, and More
Introduced and curated by RIL and Partners
Based on a decade of experience working across humanitarian innovation ecosystems, RIL has developed a range of tools designed to respond to the evolving needs of the sector. All tools are open resources and freely accessible to all.
RIL’s Open Tools
SHINE IT is RIL’s Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) tool for social and humanitarian innovators with free access to all. It consists of a series of simple tools and guidance to help innovators operating in humanitarian contexts generate evidence to pilot and scale their solutions.
SMILE is an online, searchable directory of humanitarian innovation ecosystem actors and innovations in Uganda. Developed by the U-RIL, SMILE compiles data gathered by U-RIL teams and information shared directly by organizations and innovators through online forms.
RIL Ethical Standards and Principles are derived by an ecosystem of practice and research, guiding the engagement and initiatives of RIL’s core staff, members, and partners which also serve as a great reference for the wider humanitarian innovation community.
Fresh from the Field
On July 14, 2026, Uganda Response Innovation Lab hosted the the second “URRI Learning Review - Challenge Mapping Convener” on the issue of land access in Fort Portal, Uganda.
On July 9, 2026, Uganda Response Innovation Lab hosted the first “URRI Learning Review - Challenge Mapping Convener” on the issue of land access in Gulu, Uganda.
Check out the latest issue of our RIL Newsletter!
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.
As StartupBlink's Ecosystem Partner in Somalia and recognised as one of the "Notable Startup Ecosystem Builders", Response Innovation Lab remains committed to deepening our collaboration with the private sector and the local innovation community—working together to build a more connected, resilient, and thriving ecosystem.
We just added a new addition to our Open Resources hub: MatchMaker Solutions Packs! Free to access for all, the guidebook helping organisations and networks moving from “we have a challenge” to “here’s what we can test and try”.
This report sheds light on the issue of electronic waste in the city of Aleppo, Syria, with a focus on the current situation and its environmental and social impacts. It attempts to estimate e-waste quantities and examine existing collection and treatment practices. It should be noted that detailed, city-level data—particularly for Aleppo—are scarce or unavailable, although indicative estimates exist, such as an average of approximately 4.6 kg of electronic devices available per capita in the market.
U-Learn, together with Rwanga Foundation, ALNAP, the Humanitarian Library and Shelter Center, co-hosted a webinar on learning, innovation, and evidence uptake in humanitarian contexts. The webinar aimed to share practical approaches to strengthening learning and evidence uptake in humanitarian and refugee responses. Check out the webinar recording and relevant resources!
Our annual review for 2025 is finally here. The year witnessed significant disruptions across the humanitarian sector, yet our global network continued to explore—through relentless effort and commitment—how to do more with less.
We’re excited to launch InvoLearn, a chat-based learning experience designed to help humanitarian workers build core innovation skills — anytime, anywhere, even with limited connectivity. Developed by SyRIL, InvoLearn offers interactive, self-paced micro-learning grounded in recognized humanitarian innovation frameworks.
#PostRILx25 brings highlights and resources from the discussions, speakers, and partners. Today’s piece is brought to you by Disya Marianty, Pujiono Centre - Co-Coordinator of the Indonesia Localisation Lab, under the Indonesia Development-Humanitarian Alliance (ID-HA) , an interim secretariat of the Indonesian Humanitarian Coordination Platform (IHCP) .
We have successfully delivered the first round of the training series under the Oxfam Novib program “Humanitarian System Transformation through Local Humanitarian Leadership”! Together, we unpacked the structural challenges around capacity and risk sharing, and explored how innovation can be a practical tool to rethink the way we work — from the ground up.
What can you learn? A breakdown of ecosystem components and their relevance to innovation in humanitarian settings; Case studies from Syria and Uganda offering real-world examples of ecosystem mapping and engagement; Tools and frameworks from the RIL to help practitioners identify and strengthen key relationships, flows, and enabling conditions in their contexts….and more!
The highlights of Response Innovation Lab’s 2024, across the globe.
Recognising the challenge brought by food insecurity, the Syria Response Innovation Lab (RIL), in collaboration with Field Ready Middle East, World Vision Syria Response (WVSR), and the Food Security Cluster (FS Cluster), organized two back-to-back workshops—one in Gaziantep, Türkiye, and another in Northwest Syria at the RIL. These workshops provided a platform for frontline responders to voice challenges, exchange insights, and collaboratively design solutions, fostering local ownership.
Insights from our MENA Manager, Ruba Hijazi, on Social Entrepreneurship and the collaborations between NGOs and social enterprises.
How did we conduct the convener for challenge mapping in NW Syria? Read our full Convener Report to know more about how RIL works on the ground.
How do we generate and share evidence? Everything explained in one video!
Nestled within the challenging terrain of the Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement in Uganda, a beacon of hope is meticulously emerging through the collaboration of Gulu University, the Response Innovation Lab (RIL), and Save the Children. This unfolding narrative, generously backed by Innovation Norway under the Local Innovations for Nutrition Solutions (LINS) project, unfolds against the backdrop of two critical issues plaguing refugee-hosting communities—malnutrition and limited access to diverse, nutritious foods.
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.
Response Innovation Lab has just released two short videos summarizing key 2023 achievements in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and East and Central Africa (ECA) regions.
Response Innovation Lab and the World Food Programme have joined forces to facilitate the development and adoption of innovative solutions to key challenges in the Somali food system space. This collaboration culminated in a workshop held in Hargeisa on September 19-21 and co-facilitated by the two partners.
On Friday, 29 September 2023, Uganda's Response Innovation Lab (U-RIL), in partnership with Startup Uganda, hosted an event to disseminate the findings of the Landscape Analysis of the Uganda Innovation Ecosystem and to launch SMILE, an interactive ecosystem map.
Dear humanitarian innovators and innovative humanitarians,
I hope that this blog post finds many of you enjoying a well-earned vacation. Leaving your day to day surroundings has a way to elicit some fresh thinking and gain some perspective on things, no? In my case, the change of perspective is quite literal:
In Uganda, refugee-led organizations (RLOs) are developing innovative solutions to everyday problems found throughout their settlements and host communities. In this blog post we shine a spotlight on 13 RLOs creating, testing, and providing new solutions for refugees and others.
Financial inclusion efforts and savings groups are common interventions in humanitarian and development programming. Individually or combined they help promote savings, increase access to credit and ultimately, build self-reliance. With more commercial and mainstream financial services moving online, there are also efforts to do the same at the community level. With this in mind, Ugandan company Akaboxi developed a way to help digitise village savings and loan associations (VSLAs) and link them to banks and other finance institutions. Akaboxi hoped their innovation would not only help people save but also help them build a base from which they could access commercial financial services in the future.
Starting around May 2022, RIL and Audiopedia Foundation ran three interactive events in Kampala. These events also included developing interesting case studies of open source in action and running a contribution competition. Through these events it was hoped that existing open-source users and developers would find humanitarian and development actors to partner with and that more people, regardless of their background, would feel more confident to try using open-source software.
The “Fresh from the Field” section brings together newly released publications from across our network. These may include research reports, convener reports developed under specific projects, insight pieces authored by our team or partners, and other resources that we believe offer value to the wider ecosystem. We believe innovation support should serve as a public good, and we are committed to sharing learnings and evidence openly, making them accessible to all.
Resources Library
As an ecosystem facilitator, RIL is committed to strengthening the collective impact of the humanitarian innovation community. In this spirit, we curate and share a library of resources developed by partners and actors across the wider ecosystem—making knowledge and tools openly accessible to all.
The Resources Library has two tabs: one listing open resources related to Humanitarian Innovation, the other listing AI related resources.
We welcome contributions from ecosystem peers. If you are interested in listing or recommending resources, please reach out to weicong@responseinnovationlab.com.
To use the “filter” function, please use the Google sheet directly here
Our partner Field Ready Middle East published the report following the Challenge Mapping workshop under RISE Syria.