Philippines : The Universities and Councils Network on Innovation for Inclusive Development in Southeast Asia (UNIID-SEA) is launching a research program designed to create innovative solutions to poverty-related or social-exclusion issues faced by poor and marginalized communities in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Called the Innovation for Inclusive Development (IID) Challenge, this pioneering small grants program helps to reduce the internal development gap among ASEAN Member States by facilitating the sharing of knowledge and innovations that address common development issues in the region. This is supportive of the collaborative efforts of UNIID-SEA and the Philippines’ Department of Foreign Affairs, through its Office of ASEAN Affairs, to push for the integration of inclusive development in the ASEAN agenda.

What is innovation for inclusive development?

Inclusive innovation is at the heart of innovation for inclusive development, which is broadly defined as “innovation that aims to reduce poverty, and enables as many groups of people, especially the poor and marginalized, to participate in decision-making, create and actualize opportunities, and share the benefits of development.”

Program sponsors and objectives

Initiated by UNIID-SEA – in partnership with the National Research Council of the Philippines (NRCP), National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), Dewan Riset Nasional (DRN) of Indonesia, and National Council for Science and Technology Policy of Vietnam (NCSTP) – the IID Challenge envisions research as a dynamic process, with communities being regarded not just as mere recipients of, but also as partners in, grassroots empowerment.

Specifically, the grants program will:

– introduce IID as a strategy for innovation research to achieve national development goals and targets for inclusive development; and

– involve a team – consisting of a community partner, research partner and intermediary partner (e.g. local government agencies, private sector, academe and civil society organizations) – in order to increase the project’s usability, acceptability to the community and ownership by the community.

IID and action research

The IID Challenge is accepting proposals until June 30, 2014 for action research in the following areas: 1) food security; 2) access to clean and low-cost energy and water; 3) health and sanitation; 4) natural resource management and climate change adaptation; and 5) human security and development.

Recent examples of successful IID initiatives include:

– a stand-alone water purifying system developed for floating communities in Vietnam. Fitted to a typical boathouse, the bicycle-driven system can filter 300 litres of water per hour.

– an Indonesian project that developed a single diagnostic test kit for malaria, typhoid and leptospirosis;

– removing hazardous pesticides from drinking water in Thailand using locally made activated carbon

– a project in the Philippines that resulted in the production and distribution of emergency food reserves based on cassava flour, a locally available, abundant, affordable and ready-to-use food ingredient; and

– a Cambodia-based project that resulted in the successful design, construction and trial of the world’s first community-based floating human waste treatment barge;

Source : ACN Newswire