Investigating Inclusive Systems Innovation

A multi-stakeholder co-design team explores potential innovations in coffee processing in Arusha, Tanzania. Photo: Courtesy MIT D-Lab
A multi-stakeholder co-design team explores potential innovations in coffee processing in Arusha, Tanzania. Photo: Courtesy MIT D-Lab

Overview

There is growing recognition among scholars and development practitioners that innovation and change at the local systems-level require multi-stakeholder approaches that prioritize the inclusion and leadership of previously marginalized members of these systems.

Inclusive innovation is, therefore, gaining traction as a strategy for more inclusive local and regional development. Yet research on these processes has so far been limited, and there is a need to identify what processes of inclusive innovation involve as well as the capacities and skills that are needed to catalyze, facilitate, and support them.

This project is developing answers to these questions by investigating successful examples of inclusive innovation within local systems facing development challenges. Through the analysis of existing evidence and new case study research, this project is identifying key features of inclusive innovation processes, as well as the capacities and skills required to facilitate them.  
This research aims to produce actionable recommendations for how local and global actors can support inclusive systems innovation initiatives in the diverse contexts where they engage.

Publications

Understanding inclusive innovation processes in agricultural systems: a middle-range conceptual model

Webinars

Inclusive Innovation: the why and the how, delivered in collaboration with MIT Professional Education

Project contact

Elizabeth Hoffecker, Principal Investigator and Project Manager


For further information about MIT D-Lab | CITE contact

Kendra Leith, MIT D-Lab Associate Director for Research