The Rockefeller Foundation
I:
Initiative Overview
The Accelerating Innovation for Development Initiative of the Rockefeller Foundation was a US$16.5 million effort approved in 2007 aimed at: 1.
Identifying and demonstrating that open and user-driven innovation models are effective and efficient innovation processes for the needs of the poor; and
2. Significantly increasing the application of these models to meet the needs of the poor.
I : A
Initiative Development and Rationale
Based on interviews with former RF staff who were deeply involved in the development of the Initiative, it is our understanding that the initial thinking about the Initiative emerged out of the Foundation’s examination of 15 trends around globalization and its effects on the lives of poor and vulnerable populations. One of these trends focused on developments in innovation, product development and technology. A working group within the Foundation produced a paper that highlighted two points—first that technology was increasingly being used to catalyze and generate innovation in the private sector through approaches such as outsourcing and crowdsourcing; and second, that linked to this technology, innovation had been moving away from a “closed”, inward looking and “supplydriven” process to a much more open and networked process, where new ideas, knowledge or resources were being brought from outside.
1
Evaluation Report
In laying the groundwork for the Initiative, the Foundation found that while innovation has long been viewed as an effective strategy relied upon by the private sector to generate value and growth, the concepts and practices around innovation had yet to take hold in the social development sector. It was hypothesized that applying these concepts to the social development sector, if done effectively, would result in significant advances in the lives of poor and vulnerable people. The Foundation’s Accelerating Innovation for Development Initiative was based on the premise that greater and more effective use of innovation concepts would result in products, processes and services that addressed social development challenges, even those that appeared intractable.