Development Lab: The International Development Innovation Network (IDIN)
Overview
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will lead two main efforts. The first, the International Development Innovation Network will foster local innovation by supporting the ingenuity, creativity and resiliance of people living in poverty. IDIN aims to reverse the trend that technology is designed almost exclusively for the richest 10 percent of the world’s customers while ignoring the needs of the other 90 percent.
Development Innovation Proposed Activities
Successful technologies that have broad application and impact happen when the problem is properly defined, the solution is appropriate and well designed, and the complex supporting environment is in place to support a viable business. The Lab will initially focus on technologies that support the priorities in USAID’s 2011-2015 Policy Framework; this could include technologies that bring clean drinking water to poor families, innovations that bring reliable power sources to remote rural communities, or solutions to pressing health dillemmas.
Planned Activities:
| Incubation | Work hand-in-hand with innovators from developing countries to better define problems, develop and evaluate prototype solutions, and incubate businesses that can make a difference in the lives of the people living in poverty. |
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| Design Summits | 12 international design summits to identify the best technologies and innovations coming from those living and working in developing countries. |
| Innovation Hubs | Eight Innovation Hubs worldwide will support and connect the most promising technologies and innovators to the resources and training necessary to bring those solutions to the populations that need them most. |
| Evaluation | Rigorous evaluation of promising technologies through data collection and analysis to determine their true social, economic, and political impacts. |
Goal
USAID and the larger development community will have the ability to assess technologies used in development and make better decisions about the deployment of different technology options.
Development Lab: Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation (CITE)
Overview
The second, the Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation will evaluate technological solutions to development challenges and poverty relief through Technology Evaluation Reports, which will be similar to Consumer Reports, and will help donors and policy-makers identify and invest in the best technological solutions to challenges in the developing world.
Technology Evaluation Proposed Activities
The Lab’s research and evaluation program will lead to new and better products focused on poverty alleviation, an outcome in line with USAID’s focus on innovation in development.
Planned Activities:
| Technology Evaluation | Publish annual Technology Evaluation Reports that provide insights to donors and policy-makers on which technologies are most promising.. |
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| Summits | Bi-Annual DevTech Summits will share knowledge about new technologies and innovations. |
| Online pipeline | An online pipeline of technology options for the development community. |
| Fellowships | Develop a cadre of future development professionals, designers and entrepreneurs in the field of technology evaluation and design. |
Goal
Create a global community focused on using science, technology, design, and entrepreneurship to address global development challenges under a new paradigm that fosters local innovators and innovation.
Last updated: February 22, 2013
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