Innovation in the humanitarian sector
Innovation Norway manages assignments from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that aim to stimulate innovative collaboration between the business sector and stakeholders working within humanitarian development. The purpose is to tackle key social challenges and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Humanitarian Innovation Programme
The Humanitarian Innovation Programme stimulates innovation in the humanitarian sector and facilitates innovation partnerships between humanitarian organisations and business.
The programme has an annual call for proposals where projects are granted funding over two years. In 2022, work was done on, for example, developing a VR solution for the therapeutic treatment of survivors of gender-based violence and a digital tool that will enable patient monitoring in areas aid workers cannot access directly.
Norwegian People’s Aid is developing a tool that can detect tripwires that trigger improvised landmines. In collaboration with two companies, a new torch has been developed that can be used both in collapsed buildings and outdoors, and so has a new type of metal detector that can detect tripwires in areas with other metal noise. These tools will be used in Iraq and Ukraine.
The Humanitarian Innovation Programme is helping to boost innovation work in organisations and build new knowledge. The programme sets requirements concerning matching funding from the private sector. Of a total of NOK 53.8 million in allocated grants in 2022, NOK 21.8 million was matched by private capital.
Vision 2030
The Vision 2030 programme helps fight poverty by promoting innovative Norwegian solutions within health and education in developing countries. This is done by further developing and scaling up solutions from Norwegian companies.
The projects must have a local partner in order to ensure that the solution is incorporated into national priorities and development plans. Innovation Norway contributes as a sparring partner and adviser to all of the projects that have been granted support and helps to establish cooperation agreements with local partners.
Eight projects were completed in 2022. These included Attensi AS and Solfrid Raknes, who have developed ‘Happy Helping Hand’, a game app that provides training in emotional problem-solving for children and young people. Some 3,000 young Syrian refugees in Lebanon have used the solution, with promising results in the form of a significant reduction in angst and depression.
Another project is Amesto Nextbridge AS, which has developed an automatic text processing solution in collaboration with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The solution makes it possible to read and classify a large number of field reports automatically using AI. This contributed to better and faster responses during the pandemic.
Enterprise Development for Jobs
Enterprise Development for Jobs helps combat poverty by creating jobs in prioritised developing countries and increasing access to renewables.
Several upskilling and networking activities were carried out in 2022, including a workshop on responsible business and anti-corruption in cooperation with the OECD, and a networking meeting with decision-makers in humanitarian organisations and representatives for renewables.
Several delegation trips were also carried out in 2022, including a trip to Kenya that focused on food security, agriculture, agritech, and off-grid renewables, and a trip to Tanzania to identify challenges the private sector can solve through innovative solutions and local business development.