Every year the CDAC Network brings together a range of original thinkers to explore difficult, messy challenges confronting humanitarian action.  In 2020 during the early months of the global Covid pandemic, I had the privilege of virtually attending this conference and recording the ideas that were presented.  

The topic under discussion was the role technology should play in humanitarian action and the extent to which it improved outcomes or actually reinforced deeply embedded issues of white privilege and amplified inequality among those receiving aid.  The thought leaders challenged the easy assumptions about the benefits of both Western led aid missions and the value of technology to solve problems in humanitarian action.

Artificial Intelligence is like to be the most powerful new technology to emerge in our age of exceptionally powerful new tech.  It has the ability to supercharge an organization, particularly if the organization is ready to adopt strategies built on ecosystem innovation.

A lot of people, even those trained in the field, think that innovation is just one set of practices.  That's not the case.  How you do innovation depends on the kind of challenge you face.  And as a result, over the last 70 years, three very different methodologies have been widely adopted.  Today a fourth approach, Ecosystem Innovation, is emerging in response to the need to tackle complex and fast moving challenges in business and the world around us.