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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.

With the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at RIL’s annual event, RILx25, in Istanbul, Rwanga Foundation officially joins the RIL global network as an Affiliate Facility. Affiliate Facilities share RIL’s vision of developing inclusive and collaborative innovation ecosystems, while combining their local expertise and institutional strengths with RIL’s methodologies. Rwanga Foundation becomes RIL’s fourth Affiliate Facility, following the ones in Jordan, Nepal, and Puerto Rico.

The Response Innovation Lab (RIL), in partnership with Field Ready for Humanitarian Innovation and World Vision Syria Response, with generous support from World Vision Hong Kong, is proud to launch a pioneering new initiative: the E-Waste Challenge in Aleppo.

This project is designed to empower local innovators, students, repair technicians, startups, engineers, NGOs, community-based organizations, academics, and private sector actors to co-create solutions that recycle and repurpose electronic waste. The initiative combines training, collaboration, and financial support to ensure that promising ideas can move from concept to reality.

Syria Response Innovation Lab (RIL)—in partnership with Shafak Organization, World Vision Syria Response (WVSR), and Field Ready Middle East, and in close collaboration with the Food Security Cluster (FS Cluster)—is proud to announce the launch of a new pilot project: “Conservation Agriculture – Towards a Sustainable Agricultural Future.”

The project is being implemented in Al-Bab, rural Aleppo, an area heavily impacted by climate change and food insecurity. It represents the first pilot in Northwest Syria designed to introduce conservation agriculture as a climate-adaptive farming technique.

The Syria Response Innovation Lab (SyRIL) invites Syrian innovators, entrepreneurs, start-ups, students, and professionals to submit their creative solutions to humanitarian challenges.

 This initiative seeks to bridge entrepreneurial thinking with humanitarian needs—amplifying innovative ideas made by Syrians, for Syrians, and connecting them with global decision-makers, donors, and innovation agencies.

Call for Ugandan- and Refugee-Led Tech & AI Innovations! Applications are open for the Uganda 2025 RIL Innovation Support Cohort, a 5-day bootcamp designed to strengthen the capacity of innovators working in humanitarian response. Check out our requirements and apply now!

We will see you in Istanbul from October 15 to 17! This year, we will explore together “Humanitarian Systems Transformation” and “Climate Adaptation in Fragile Settings”.

As StartupBlink’s Ecosystem Partner, Somali Response Innovation Lab is happy to share that Somalia reclaims its spot in the Global Top 100 Startup Ecosystem, ranked by StartupBlink in 2025. Somalia now ranks 13th place in Africa and 4th in Eastern Africa!

The highlights of Response Innovation Lab’s 2024, across the globe.

Join us online or in person for a 90-minute session to explore the current social innovation ecosystem and pathways between local communities in areas affected by crisis and the national humanitarian and innovation hubs.

As a partnership with Elrha and with the support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Norad - Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, the Humanitarian Innovation Forum brought together a diverse group of actors to discuss the challenges facing humanitarian innovations and and to envision how the ecosystem could better support the communities.

Your voice matters! This is your chance to contribute to shaping impactful solutions to address food insecurity in Northwest Syria. Let’s collaborate to tackle the region’s most pressing issues and create meaningful change.

We have been committed to establishing the Innovation WASH Club as a coordinated and dedicated platform. The convener participants, now collectively committed as part of the Club, will mobilize their resources and bring innovations to enhance the WASH response in NW Syria.

RILx24 has successfully concluded! Hosted by World Vision Nepal and Nepal Innovation Lab, we organized the 2024 edition of the annual RILx event. This year, we gathered in Kathmandu, Nepal from September 17-19, and welcomed over 200 guests from 60 agencies coming from 25 different countries!

We’re preparing for our first "Challenge Mapping" exercise, and we need your help to identify the critical challenges faced in the WASH sector. Your feedback will guide our efforts and ensure they are as impactful as possible.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and Somalia Response Innovation Lab (SomRIL) with the support of USAID Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs (BHA) and the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, are looking for solutions in Somalia that address food insecurity through strengthening food systems.

On May 30, 2024, in Gaziantep, Turkey, we officially launched the Northwest Syria Response Innovation Lab (NW Syria RIL). This initiative, led by World Vision International and the Response Innovation Lab (RIL), is set to transform humanitarian response in Northwest Syria, particularly in the aftermath of the 2023 earthquakes.

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.

You can watch the MENA recap here and the ECA recap here.