4 Key Methods Open Innovation Has An Enduring Affect

In November 2020, Wazoku launched a sequence of challenges with Habitat for Humanity, facilitated by SeaFreight Labs. In Kenya, Mexico, India and the Philippines, the Wazoku Crowd supplied options to unravel varied humanitarian and housing issues. Read extra about their success in our Habitat for humanity report!

When we collaborated with Habitat for humanity And Sea Freight Labs on a sequence of challenges, we knew that our Wazoku crowd of the tens of millions of change brokers had the keenness to become involved, supported by the experience to supply essential options.

These challenges persist lasting results for the communities they’ve helped world wide. In this weblog, we check out 4 key methods these open innovation challenges have had an enduring affect.

Ongoing Involvement:

Habitat for Humanity’s work world wide has impressed and captivated folks for many years. Former President Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter hosted an annual house constructing occasion, and at 98^e birthday, President Carter helped once moreassemble help beams.

At least two of the improvements found by this challenge leverage the continued deployment of lively subject testing to additional validate efficacy and cost-effectiveness.

In the Mexico Water Challenge, options had been submitted from 26 international locations: the profitable Solver lives on a unique continent. His answer introduced first-hand contextual data, utilizing UV mild and a carbon filter to determine and filter out impurities in rainwater, which might then be utilized by low-income city households.

“I’d like to suggest more solutions to challenges in this area, whether they’re implemented by Habitat for Humanity or someone else.”
// Jesus Chico Fernandez – Winning Mexico Challenge solver

Risk Mitigation:

Open innovation challenges are utilized by organizations to attain a selected purpose that’s past their present attain. For Habitat for Humanity, these challenges acted as a drive multiplier to attain and develop current targets from the 4′Hideout Venture Labs‘. One of those targets, danger discount in residential developmenttook priority within the Kenya and Philippines Challenges.

In Kenya, 70% of the inhabitants is believed to be liable to malaria, and there are roughly 3.5 million new instances annually. This problem focuses on discovering inexpensive and sustainable house furnishing options to scale back the variety of mosquitoes and bites. Solutions had been examined on the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)with the profitable design reaching an 89% discount in mosquito numbers in comparison with management designs.

For the Challenge within the Philippines, the profitable group proposed know-how that made it doable to construct foundations on homes constructed with out foundations. The Challenge was carried out by the Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter (TCIS), Holcim Philippines, Hilti FoundationAnd BASE Bahay Foundationwith the prototype mounted on partial houses constructed particularly for the sphere check.

Cultural Change:

Patrick Kelley, Global Vice President at TCIS, famous that these initiatives came about after social norms had been mapped. The groups then centered on retrofitting houses, versus new development, which allowed for higher cost-efficiency and higher probability of social acceptance.

For most of the options that nonprofits and humanitarian organizations discover with Wazoku, group acceptance and cultural change are simply as essential as the extent of innovation. In the Kenya Challenge, Habitat and SeaFreight Labs ensured that native help teams had been a part of analysis, implementation and subsequent steps.

“Fortunately, the solution we awarded was accepted by the community almost immediately.”
// Jerick Axalan – Market Systems and Entrepreneurship Specialist, Habitat for Humanity International

In addition to KEMRI, Women in Real Estate (WIRE), Arifu, The Architectural Association of Kenya (AAK), and others had been key stakeholders. A working answer solely has worth whether it is accepted and validated by the local people that may use it.

Cost Financial Savings:

When utilizing Open Innovation Challenges you will need to set up answer necessities: one in all them is commonly a value threshold. This ensures that each one options are efficient as properly financially impartial. In the India Challenge on development waste circularity, low-income households would reap the advantages of recycled development parts.

“Together, we used common sense to find low-cost solutions to high-impact problems. My favorite part is that these solutions can be deployed outside of Habitat, potentially impacting thousands more families.”
// Harry Sangree – Founder, SeaFreight Labs

Innovation usually stems from adversity and price constraints are sometimes a motive for change. For Habitat’s work in these international locations, a major want has been to ship these options to as many individuals as doable. In Kenya, every customized hut meant native households might cut back mosquito intrusion by 50x for lower than $150 USD.

In these 4 Habitat for Humanity challenges, there’s a actual and lasting benefit when it comes to tradition, danger, involvement and price. Want to know extra about how open innovation with Wazoku can result in actual change? Read by our newest buyer tales!