More than just luck: Innovation in humanitarian action

The humanitarian system has a proven ability to produce innovations, but it does so sporadically and often struggles to take good ideas to scale quickly. Giving more thought to the activities of innovation and how to support them is particularly important given the range of crises for which humanitarian assistance is needed today.

For innovation to deliver on its promise, humanitarian managers need to know how to innovate effectively and efficiently for humanitarian purposes. This report provides a roadmap for successful innovation in humanitarian contexts, based on a year-long study of 15 projects funded by the Humanitarian Innovation Fund (HIF). It provides the first analysis of its kind of specific project-level innovation processes in the humanitarian system.