User talk:Humanitarian Innovation Project

The Humanitarian Innovation Project (HIP) is an academic research project based in the University of Oxford Refugee Studies Centre, United Kingdom. HIP seeks to understand and enhance the way in which vulnerable refugee communities create their own sustainable solutions and find innovative ways to solve day-to-day challenges. The project was launched in July 2012 and is funded by Stephanie and Hunter Hunt. HIP established a cooperation agreement with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)’s initiative ‘UNHCR Innovation’. The primary aims of HIP are to understand the relationship between refugee livelihoods and the private sector, and to understand the role of innovation and technology in refugees’ livelihoods strategies. HIP's work is initially focused on Uganda and the East African region.

HIP aims to inform the conceptualisation and development of innovation centres, promote self-sufficiency and self-protection for refugees, conceptualise the private sector as an actor in refugee protection, and develop a methodology for bottom-up innovation.

The Project Director is Dr Alexander Betts, a Lecturer in Refugee Studies and Forced Migration with an extensive experience in working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Headquarters, the Council of Europe, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the Migration Policy Institute, and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Background

The global governance of humanitarianism has historically been state-centric.When people are displaced by conflict, repression or natural disaster, the assumption is that the only viable response is led and coordinated by donor governments, based largely on a logic of charity. When a crisis breaks out, the humanitarian system – as an international analogue to the domestic welfare state – kicks in, and vulnerable people receive access to protection. The global refugee regime, for example, based around the role of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), enables states to collectively act to provide protection to people fleeing across international borders. This predominantly state-led and state-coordinated response is crucial and saves lives. However, by itself, it has limitations.

First, it can be inefficient: humanitarian organisations may resort to the products, processes, and approaches that they have used in the past, even when they may not be the most efficient or effective available. Second, it can lead to dependency: the logic of charity underlying humanitarian response sometimes leads people to be caught in a situation of long-term reliance on international support. Third, it can be unsustainable: long-term humanitarian assistance represents a drain on increasingly finite humanitarian budgets.

These challenges apply across the humanitarian system. However, they are starkly illustrated within so-called protracted refugee situations, in which refugees find themselves in an intractable state of limbo, frequently confined to refugee camps in which they have no right to work and limited freedom of movement. The dominant humanitarian model tends to crowd-out opportunities for refugees to receive protection in sustainable ways that build upon their skills and talents. Part of this is a problem of host government regulation but part of it stems from the perception of refugees as an inevitable burden rather than a potential benefit to host communities.

In response to these challenges, ‘humanitarian innovation’ is considered as an alternative. Innovation is understood not as novelty or invention but as the adaptation of products or processes to a particular context. It is based on the recognition that there may be alternative, untapped solutions and solution-holders ‘out there’ that can provide new and better ways to approach the different sectors that comprise humanitarianism – water, sanitation, nutrition, communications, livelihoods, shelter, and health, for example. Furthermore, it is based on the recognition that sometimes private actors – including refugees themselves and businesses at the local, national and global levels – may offer creative and sustainable alternatives to state-led humanitarian dependency.

This ‘innovation turn’ is beginning to emerge across the UN system. UNICEF has been pioneering in establishing an Innovation Unit within its headquarters in New York, and a number of Innovation Labs, beginning in Kosovo, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. These labs have worked on developing and adapting technologies such as birth registration systems and provided opportunities for youth empowerment through mentoring and nurturing social entrepreneurship and business development. UN Global Pulse was created in 2009 to harness innovation for the world’s vulnerable, with a particular focus on what they call “real-time data”. Most recently in 2012, UNHCR has created an initiative called UNHCR Innovation based at its headquarters in Geneva, and is working to develop methodologies to pilot, prototype and iterate alternative responses to refugee protection.

Humanitarian Innovation Project Research Focus

Research Focus 1: The relationships between refugee livelihoods and the private sector

Despite the growing recognition of the importance of the private sector in refugee livelihoods, few systematic studies have been conducted to explore the relationships between refugees’ economic activities and the business sector. The nature of refugees’ engagement with the private sector can be differentiated by a number of external factors such as regulatory frameworks and living locations, therefore comparative analysis across countries (initial focus on Uganda) and sites (urban settings and refugee camps) is part of the research.

Research Focus 2: The relationships between refugee livelihoods, technology and innovation'''

Innovation and technology are an integral part of the private sector and markets. This research activity investigates what knowledge, networks and skills refugees use; how, why and where innovation takes place; and explores what barriers and opportunities refugees face in finding livelihoods strategies. By exploring grassroots innovation and how technology links into overall market and livelihoods activities, this information provides a deep understanding of refugee self-reliance.

Publications

Armitage, Jim (2012) ‘Out of Africa – a scheme where helping refugees helps everybody’, The Independent, 17 November, p. 60 Betts, Alexander (2013) ‘Put innovation at the heart of refugee protection work’, Guardian Professional, [Online] 4 January. Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development-professionals-network/2013/jan/04/refugees-camp-innovation-creativity?intcmp=ILCMUSTXT9383 [Accessed 9 January 2013]

Betts, Alexander, Bloom, Louise, and Omata, Naohiko (2012) ‘Humanitarian innovation and refugee protection’, Working Papers Series No. 85, November 2012, Oxford: Refugee Studies Centre

Coyle, Maria (2012) ‘Inspired by Silicon Valley’, Blueprint, [Online] November 2012, Available at: http://www.ox.ac.uk/staff/publications/blueprint/ [Accessed 9 January 2013]

Omata, Naohiko (2012) ‘Refugee livelihoods and the private sector: Ugandan case study’, Working Papers Series No. 86, November 2012, Oxford: Refugee Studies Centre

Zweynert, Astrid (2012) ‘How refugee entrepreneurs help themselves and their host country’, AlertNet, [Online] 18 December. Available at: http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/how-refugee-entrepreneurs-help-themselves-and-their-host-country [Accessed 9 January 2013]

Notes and References

External Links

Humanitarian Innovation Project

HiprojectOx Twitter

Humanitarian Innovation Project Facebook

Humanitarian Innovation Project on Youtube

Refugee Studies Centre