Louise BloomTechnology and Innovation

• Technology in livelihoods– Individual use of technology in livelihoods– Fitting into local systems

• Innovation in livelihoods– What is innovation?– Using the HIP innovation framework– Examples of innovation in Nakivale and

Kyangwali• Enabling innovation

Technology as an entry point into livelihoods

• The role of technology• Skills, knowledge and ideas• Adaption over time and transfer of

technology• Links to markets and systems

Energy Infrastructure

Nakivale Refugee Settlement

Computer

Solar Power

Battery

Solar Panel

Single purchases from Mbarara

Phone Charging

Salon

Internet

Phone repair

Music & film

Donated by friends & family

Fuel

Paraffin

Fire

New power lines (not yet connected)

Dry cell batteries

Manual

Street Lighting (UNHCR)

Energy Infrastructure

Nakivale Refugee Settlement

Computer

Solar Power

Battery

Solar Panel

Single purchases from Mbarara

Phone Charging

Salon

Internet

Phone repair

Music & film

Donated by friends & family

Street Lighting (UNHCR)

CTA

Fuel in 20L jerry cans

Computer

Battery

Phone Charging

Salon

Fuel

Generator

Battery recharge

UNHCR and Gov fuel store

Traders

Supplier truck

Milling Machine

LightingTransport

Power supply to others

TaxiBus

Restaurant

Cinema

Refrigerator in shop

Rainwater selling

Game shop

Brought in 20L jerry cans

Computer

Solar Power

Battery

Solar Panel

Single purchases from Mbarara – solar panels, computers, online music and film

Phone Charging

Salon

Internet

Phone repair

Music & film

Donations from family and friends

Fuel

Generator

Battery recharge

UNHCR and Gov fuel store

Traders

Supplier truck

Milling Machine

Lighting Transport

Power supply to others

Taxi

Bus

Paraffin

Traders

Fire

Wood cut and carried

CharcoalAgricultural

waste

Cooking

Restaurant

Bakery

New power lines (not yet connected)

Cinema

Dry cell batteries

Radio

Refrigerator in shop

Water

Manual

Tailoring, Tool sharpening, Bicycle or

hand carry

Street Lighting (UNHCR)

CTA

Game shop

Handmade Congolese

wooden bike for carrying heavy crops

or water

Water treadle pump – this

one is used to pump

rainwater from a tank to front of shop

Bike converted to add a disc for sharpening tools – powered by the wheel

• Technology an integral part of many livelihoods– Similar technologies in both sites– High level of re-use of materials

• Connections and networks– Social networks vital– Integrated into local systems

• Adaption and scale-up over time demonstrates innovation in livelihoods

Innovation

• Types– Tech (products) ;

processes or business models

– Incremental or Radical change

• Learning and triggers

Define the problem or

Identify the opportunity

Test, Adapt and

Use the solution

Find a potential solution

Appropriately

Scale the solution

• Process: to make improvements or change

Innovation framework

Beekeeper & Carpenter - Kyangwali

Define the problem or Identify the opportunityNo use for photography skills upon arrival and lack of income and later an injury which meant he could not travel to receive NGO distributed

foodFind a potential solution

Learnt bee keeping and making hives from brother already in the settlement.

Test, Adapt and Use the solution

1) Due to rain damage, a new hive design was made from a tree log.

2) To diversify income sources a carpentry shop was made with savings from the honey sales.

Appropriately Scale the solution

Many hives are kept, but large sales are only made to nationals from outside the village.

• Innovation from the bottom-up– Local capacity– Local systems

• Using the innovation process

No income

Make trays & flour on credit

Start a bakeryClosed, not scaled

Illness and low revenue

Start a shop

Diversify goods in shop

Still open, not growing v.fast

Seen others –2nd hand clothing

Buy, clean, repair then sell

Ongoing

Limited capital

Mother-in-law is

sick

Saw neighbours mud stove

Copied and adapted for shop

Ongoing

Mother-in-law gives grinder

Uses the grinder to

make samosas

Ongoing

Somali shopkeeper

Barriers to innovation• Challenges stated– Access to financial capital– Access to material resources– Physical health– Market access

• Aspirations– Business growth and business advice– New skills and training

Next Steps• Deeper understanding of innovation in

livelihoods – Barriers and opportunities

• Enabling innovation– Types of spaces/ models that create an enabling

environment?• Case studies of ‘innovation spaces’– Variety: Community groups to new ICT Hubs

• Constraints and opportunities in refugee livelihoods innovation

• What enabling factors and environments?

• Concept of a Refugee Innovation Centre

This old oil drum is being used as a cooker to sell cooked bananas in Rubundo Zone, Nakivale. Banana tree trunks are slotted through the holes at the top and meet in the middle to support the charcoal for cooking. Some wire mesh is used as the grill.

Reed matt, traditionally decorated for new brides, this congolese lady in Nakivale did not have access to coloured material, so collected sweet wrappers to use as decoration weaved into the matts...which sold for 2,000 more shillings than the plain matts.

Repair specialist in Kyangwali. He repairs saucepans with no welding, instead he uses scrap pans and metal with some basic tools to intricately fill the holes. He teaches others his same methods. And aspired to have a machine that made saucepans, though he didn't know what type of machine that would be.

A bee keeper invented this bee hive made from a hollow log, in order to help stop the rain entering the hive (as it does with the traditional bee hives made of vine). He got the idea from the technique that his grandparents used to make large baths for making drinks back in the DRC

Another repair man, repaired many items in Kyangwali. He taught himself how to repair umbrellas in the DRC, but now repairs plastic items, shoes and other HH goods. The chair on the right is his own resourceful way of fixing a plastic chair (which can’t be repaired with heat due to the type of plastic).