Founded by World Vision, Save the Children, Oxfam, and Civic, the Response Innovation Lab is a global initiative that generates impact by transforming how challenges are solved in responses, whether linked to natural disasters or protracted, complex emergencies. The Response Innovation Lab was founded by humanitarian professionals from some of teh world's leading NGOs who experienced first-hand how difficult it is for innovative solutions to be piloted, tested, and scaled in emergency contexts, where they are most needed. RIL creates space inside major humanitarian responses that connect response actors looking for innovative solutions to humanitarian challenges with organizations, often nontraditional actors (start-ups, social enterprises, or academia) to facilitate understanding, shared challenges, and identify potential breakthrough solutions that address the needs of crisis-affected communities. To date, there are four labs and two pop-ups labs across multiple humanitarian responses.

Why work with the RIL

LOCAL ACCESS, GLOBAL REACH

As a response-based open collaboration space, RIL is uniquely positioned to bring multiple actors together – NGOs, local population, civil society, government, UN agencies, and private partners – to identify common problems and find solutions. The work of their country labs is backed by a global network of the world's leading humanitarian NGOs and a diverse group of strategic partners that provide opportunities to leverage existing solutions and scale-out new innovations.

SOLUTION FOCUSED

RIL believes in solving critical challenges through innovation. Using our partners' well-established presence throughout the humanitarian system (including all IASC Clusters), RIL is able to select key roadblocks preventing the response from achieving maximum impact. They then leverage their combined technical expertise and on-the-ground connections, and global network to identify and pilot viable solutions.

CONNECTING THE HUMANITARIAN WORLD WITH INNOVATION

RIL strives to develop a more dynamic innovation ecosystem within all responses by helping humanitarian organizations work more collaboratively with nontraditional actors such as social entrepreneurs, tech start-ups, and R&D facilities and by helping these innovators navigate the complex world of emergency responses. Their diverse partnerships and local networks allow us to broker new kinds of collaborations based on delivering impact to affected populations.