In 2021, the SomRIL partnered with the Internet of Production Alliance (IOPA), and two of their members, Field Ready and Humanitarian Open Street Maps. This was around the Open Know Where (OKW) standards that were just released in 2021 to help standardize the mapping of factories to promote local manufacturing. We conducted a small pilot together with World Vision, Oxfam, the Somaliland Chamber of Commerce and the SIMAD iLab to map factories in Mogadishu and Hargeisa. We also had the standards translated into Somali. You can see these materials here: https://www.internetofproduction.org/open-know-where

In our efforts to support localization efforts, we have the privilege to lead a multi-country and multi-agency cross learning imitative. This project is working with Care Somalia and World Vision Sudan and World Vision South Sudan, 31 LNGOs from across the three countries, and Sadar Institute. The goal is to build the capacity of humanitarian LNGOs so that they are better equipped to respond. This initiative has been developing 10 curriculums that range from Community Driven Resilience, to Early Warning Systems and much more.

Click here to see the video series developed as part of the C4FC project

The SomRIL supported the SIMAD iLab to host the Global Goals Jam in Mogadishu in September, 2021. This event looked to using design thinking to address challenges in Somalia around achieving the SDGs.

In December, 2021, the SomRIL supported iRise as they organized the 3rd Mogadishu Tech Summit. We were able to organize 2 panel discussions. The first was on health innovations, and we facilitated the participation of Khalid, the founder and CEO of OGOW Health, and Sahra, the co-founder and CEO of Hello Caafi. The second was on innovations in the education sector where we facilitated the participation of World Vision, Save the Children, the Puntland MoE and Sisitech, to talk about the importance of public-private partnership and collaboration around the digital attendance pilot.

In 2019, the RIL co-convened an event with the Somali Food Security Cluster to better understand the challenges in the sector. One challenge that emerged was around the sustainability of agriculture capacity in local institutions. The pandemic delayed the progression of this MatchMaker submission, but in 2021 the SomRIL was able to partner with the SomReP consortium, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, and the Somali National University (SNU). This partnership and pilot is still unfolding, but the intent is for the SomReP to share their climate smart agriculture modules, have them endorsed by the MoAI, and then to develop a curriculum for the SNU to own and to offer to NGOs and others.

Our annual review for 2021-2022 is here! Please click on this link for a summary of activities, achievements and notable events from our growing network of field-based innovation platforms.

Over the course of four months, the RIL Central Support Unit worked with the Save the Children Sudan Country Office to help its team and partners apply innovation processes to four challenges that they had identified.

Five years ago, Response Innovation Lab launched its first platform in Jordan, kicking off an adventure that continues to prove exciting and essential to this day. To mark this milestone and the start of a new phase in our initiative, we wanted to share with you some of the most noteworthy accomplishments of our amazing colleagues and partners. Together, we have grown RIL into the largest network of field-based humanitarian innovation platforms in the world and have collectively demonstrated that decentralizing innovation processes, strengthening response-level ecosystems, promoting locally-developed solutions and encouraging horizontal scaling can improve humanitarian and “nexus” programming while also delivering on the promises of the Grand Bargain.

In 2020-2021, RIL further supported investment in this field by facilitating the 3rd call of the Dutch Relief Alliance Innovation Fund – allowing an investment of EUR 2 million in locally-led innovative proposals. See more about this locally-driven approach to funding innovation and the great solutions that emerged here.

A tailored curriculum has been developed based on an analysis of capacity gaps and existing other training programmes in Uganda. It has been delivered in partnership with Save the Children, United Social Ventures and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. - Learn more about innovator trainings here

RIL Uganda runs a Learning Hub for the refugee response actors and has supported them to learn and uptake best practices around: the Refugee Engagement Forum- Learn more about U-Learn here

With the LINS project, RIL Uganda identified alternative solutions to the traditional distribution of free and imported nutritious foods (corn-soya blend/porridge) through a participative and competitive process.
Learn more about LINS here

In 2021, LINS issued a call for nutrition innovations/solutions that are locally rooted, market-driven, sustainable, with satisfactory proof of concept, and less dependent on humanitarian aid flows. The call sought to support quality solutions to at least one of the major challenges of malnutrition

Participation in the MIT D-Lab’s Co-Creation Summit in Arua, Uganda, which promoted locally designed solutions to energy and livelihoods challenges in refugee settlements.

The Open Source for Equality initiative aims to promote the development and use of open source that contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals with a focus on health, education and equality. In this video we get to hear the experience of how five organizations are using open source for their benefit.

RIL Uganda organized a half day kick-off workshop and launch on 21st July 2022 to officially introduce the Local Innovation for Nutrition Solutions project and selected innovators to key stakeholders and partners. The event was reported on by the national TV network UBC.

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.

Read about the experience from innovator Saul Kabali with Response Innovation Lab developing SafeBangle Technologies for the past two years, a wearable technology for immediate reporting of violence attempts against women and girls.

Hello Caafi! is a groundbreaking telehealths solution from Somalia, designed and led by two remarkable women innovators.

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.