There is no clear path to securing the title of “innovator” beside one’s name, but the need for new and improved development ideas isn’t going anywhere, and neither are the positions to facilitate them.
In fact, the increasing number of innovation positions in global development require candidates from a vast range of disciplines with a knack for understanding the development agenda and the ability to build — or help colleagues build — forward-thinking solutions to complex challenges.
In the fall of 2010, President Obama called for investments in “game-changing innovation to accelerate progress toward development goals in health, food security, climate change, energy and environmental sustainability and broad-based economic growth.” And, in June 2013, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the U.K. would help technology pioneers find groundbreaking solutions to poverty through investing £50 million in a new platform called Global Development Innovation Ventures.