Innovation is an important precondition for a successful transition to sustainable development. In addition to the rather more predictable need for technological innovation, societal innovation is also of paramount importance. Societal innovation will allow each and every individual to adopt a different pattern of values and set of relationships with her/his fellow citizen(s), the society at? large and the environment. In turn, this will induce behavioural change in which new attitudes will be more geared towards sharing, saving and recycling rather than towards possessing, rapid wasting and personal and, too often, even single use.
The concept of technological innovation should not be limited to big technological innovations, produced successfully and often rapidly and massively scaled- up by multinationals. An integrated whole of decentralized bottom-up approaches, deployed at a smaller scale should be seen as its necessary complement. In the end, such approaches will make services and goods accessible to a much bigger part of the population, including to those groups that previously have been left behind. They produce practical solutions, designed by local communities and/or entrepreneurs and even often through a co-creative process. As such, they address more specific needs and expectations, influenced by the particular ecological and cultural context in which these groups are living.
Organization: Radio Farm Trust
The use of multimedia to reach groups of farmers that have been left behind and as a new interactive model for cooperation between the Sectors of Education and Agriculture.
Organization: VITO
Towards an innovative, scalable approach to further develop sustainable technologies and make them more broadly available for developing countries
- Co-creation
- Private sector sector on board
- Innovation as a key to succes
- Innovative finance
Organization: Red Cross Flanders
Electronic voucher technology for humanitarian interventions and beyond: E-vouchers in emergency or humanitarian settings not only constitute a useful and innovative instrument to increase autonomy of individual members and families within the target groups, while improving the development opportunities for the regions that are receiving the displaced populations. They also have tremendous potential to be used in many other sectors (water, family planning…) and broader instruments (social security,…)