Innovation in Flood Resilience in Indonesia: Learning from a two-track innovation process

In 2016 the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Indonesian Red Cross (Palang Merah Indonesia – PMI) together with their partner Zurich Insurance Indonesia (ZII) set out to find innovative ideas and initiatives related to flood resilience. It was the first such process in Indonesia.

Two approaches were used for discovering innovative ideas: The Innovation Challenge with a call for proposals and the ‘Lead User’ approach, a structured research approach that is commonly used in the private sector.

This case study report analyses and documents what can be learned from the application of these two approaches for identifying innovations. The report is based on a desk review and thirty-one interviews with the innovators and staff of the partners involved as well as participants and organisers of the innovation conference that took place in February 2017.