The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has launched a new initiative to strengthen the innovation ecosystem and, in doing so, better support local innovations and innovators working to address the humanitarian challenges in Bangladesh.
At a time when both the frequency and scale of humanitarian crises are increasing and the humanitarian community’s ability to respond to disasters, both man-made and natural, is stretched thin, this timely initiative will help build new solutions to create stronger support structures for innovators as they develop, test and scale innovations that complement traditional humanitarian assistance and disaster response, said a press release received on Monday.
The Global Knowledge Initiative (GKI), a non-profit headquartered in the United States, will lead the implementation of this initiative titled Accelerating Innovation for Resilience (AI4Resilience).
“Ultimately, our goal is to foster a stronger innovation ecosystem in Bangladesh for a growing and thriving community of humanitarian innovators. We hope to create an environment in which diverse actors align around a shared vision for the system and are motivated to collaborate with one another to develop solutions. This will lead to communities better able to recover and become resilient to future disasters and chronic stressors like climate change”, said Seema Patel, CEO, GKI, at the programme launch held at a hotel in Dhaka.
Thought leaders and experts at the event discussed the major gaps and opportunities to strengthen the innovation ecosystem for humanitarian response. The discussion highlighted the need for greater collaboration amongst stakeholders in the ecosystem to help Bangladesh innovate faster to respond to the growing challenges.
AI4Resilience is using stakeholder insights to design and launch a challenge to invite organisations to co-create solutions that can catalyze the supply and scale of locally-relevant innovations while enhancing networks, partnerships, and collaboration across the community. It aims to work in accompaniment with a broad range of potential innovation ecosystem actors in Bangladesh: government agencies, humanitarian organisations, corporate partners, academia, incubators, accelerators, and a range of investors.
Tina Jabeen, strategic advisor to Truvalu Enterprises, Chairperson of Bangladesh Women Investment Network, Iqbal Habib, Co-Founder of Urban Lab, Bangladesh University, Environmental Activist and Urban Planner Architect, and Kerry Breen, partner, SBK Tech Ventures were among distinguished Panelists.
The Panel Discussion was moderated by Nirjhor Rahman, CEO, Bangladesh Angels Network.
