Five more innovations on their journey to scale

We are delighted to share the five innovations selected for our Journey to Scale initiative. Journey to Scale is designed to accelerate potential solutions as they transition to scale, to test their approach in new places and form a path to larger impact. By providing support to innovators – financial and otherwise – we hope to ensure that they are able to take their solutions to the next level, making the innovation accessible to those who need it.

We are excited to be working with these five teams who are focusing not only on developing innovations with the potential to improve outcomes for people affected by crisis, but also on how to scale their innovations in ways that can be sustained in the long term.

This is a complex challenge, but we can’t wait to see what they achieve over the next few years.

SH+360: Scaling up Self-Help Plus (SH+) through humanitarian partnerships

HealthRight International

Self Help Plus (SH+) was developed by WHO to deliver mental health and psychosocial support to large numbers of people in hard-to-reach humanitarian settings. It is a package of audio-recorded sessions and illustrated self-help books designed to be delivered in large workshops by a minimally trained lay provider.

HealthRight International has developed the SH+360 model to help leading humanitarian partners to integrate SH+ into their programming with tailored support across the full project cycle, ensuring that people experiencing mental health issues have access to the support they need.

Through SH+360 the project team with will work in partnership with the International Rescue Committee, the Government of Uganda and BRAC to integrate SH+ into programming in health and protection in Uganda.

Read more.

ECOCA: First sustainable, off-grid e-cooking business in East Africa

Pesitho Holdings APS &; Mercy Corps

Pesitho and Mercy Corps are developing a sustainable business model for a locally assembled, 100% solar-powered electrical cooker. The ECOCA also covers the electricity needs of a typical off-grid household, bringing affordable clean cooking and lighting to refugees.

By localising product assembly, working through a village savings and loan associations (VSLA) retail model - which sees a group of people meet regularly to save together and take small loans from those savings - and integrating a carbon credit scheme, the team aims to create a sustainable business model that addresses the current gap in access to affordable, high-quality, clean cooking and lighting solutions in humanitarian settings.

To make it more affordable, the team will trial a flexible pay-as-you-cook scheme, which will allow families to pay per usage for up to five years.

Read more.

MediCapt: Technology in service of justice for and gender-based violence in humanitarian settings

Physicians for Human Rights

Physicians for Human Rights is scaling MediCapt, a mobile application that guides clinicians through the effective and comprehensive documentation of sexual and gender-based violence. This information is securely stored and can be transmitted as evidence to the justice sector to increase access to justice for survivors.

Physicians for Human Rights plans to work with partners to scale the use of MediCapt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Central African Republic, and beyond MediCapt and all support materials will be open source.

Read more.

DMS-Himalaya: Community-led disaster management for remote geographies

Pragya

Pragya is scaling DMS-Himalaya, an information and capacity-building disaster management toolkit, to enable marginalised and vulnerable communities in remote Himalayan geographies to reduce their disaster risk. The toolkit improves community-state disaster information flow and facilitates more collaborative action.

DMS Himalaya empowers remote communities to take charge of disaster management at the local level, spanning both pre- and post-disaster stages, and enables communities to easily collaborate with government.

Read more.

Gravit’eau: Water-recycling handwashing station for water-scarce environments

Terre des Hommes, University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) &; Gravit’eau

The Terre des Hommes, FHNW, Gravit’eau team is scaling their water-recycling handwashing station that can provide access to safe, clean handwashing in contexts where it would be otherwise due to a lack of access to clean water.

Gravit’eau recycles water, reducing the actual water use to just 5ml per handwash. Activated by a foot pump and using gravity-driven membrane filtration, the system is low-maintenance and requires no external supplies, such as chemicals, electricity or a regular water supply.

Gravit’eau is implemented in combination with the Risks, Attitudes, Norms, Abilities, and Self‐regulation (RANAS) behaviour change model, to maximise people’s acceptance of it and its subsequent impact within their community.

Read more.

Learn more about our scale work

Read more about our work to ensure that solutions reach their maximum potential, have the greatest possible impact, and lead to widespread change.

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Banner image: Clinical Officer and Senior Nursing Officer testing MediCapt at Kenya's Naivasha Hospital. Credit: Adriane Ohanesian / Physicians for Human Rights