The United Nations’ Innovation Learning Journey

(Photo by iStock/baona)

“Without innovation, we cannot meet the challenges of our time. […] We must learn not only new things, but how to learn. We need to share ideas, push boundaries and move faster. And we must harness the opportunities brought by digital technologies. Innovation across the United Nations system is essential for us to deliver at the scale and pace needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.”—UN Secretary-General António Guterres, 2019.

From displacement and poverty to illness and environmental degradation, the urgent challenges facing the world today call for innovative approaches that combine an entrepreneurial spirit with a clear understanding of the problems and a firm footing in communities. While local organizations and the public sector are vital in tackling these overlapping crises, an often under-discussed arena of innovation is the role of the United Nations (UN) and its related agencies—the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and so on. In all, the entire UN system employs close to 120,000 people across 193 countries and deploys an annual budget of more than $3 billion.

The UN organizations are tasked with solving the world’s global problems, but often the very rules that keep these organizations accountable stifle potential to increase speed and efficiency in service delivery. Founded 75 years ago, these organizations were not designed to innovate. While certain initiatives, such as the WFP’s hydroponics initiative H2Grow, UNICEF’s digital platform U-Report, and UNFPA’s GRID3 geospatial data project have been able to scale globally, the road from idea to scale is often long and rocky. Even successful projects face institutional roadblocks when bureaucratic processes hinder experimentation. Idea champions within the UN tell rich stories about the barriers to identifying, scaling, and implementing innovation. Funding models and strict accountability processes imply that resources cannot be spent on an experiment with potential to fail—which is an inherent risk of innovation. Tight budget lines lead to strict team mandates where pressure is high, over-work is rife and time for creativity is low. Hierarchical structures and strict reporting lines mean that some voices remain unheard.

As the UN starts to acknowledge that innovation is imperative to achieving its sustainable development goals (SDGs) by 2030, the challenge is to integrate organizational learning processes to better develop and scale initiatives. In our recent research, we set out to shed light on this largely unexplored phenomenon, asking: How does the UN innovate despite adverse internal conditions—and does it learn to overcome the various barriers and obstacles?

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We studied 60 innovative initiatives covering nearly all 17 of the SDGs in 10 socially oriented, geographically dispersed, and rules-based international organizations of the UN. For four years, we followed initiatives, from idea stage to scaling, and sought to identify obstacles as well as success factors that allowed them to create impact in the field—and how innovation led to organizational learning on this journey.

What we found were several common, concrete barriers at the individual, organizational, and ecosystem levels which can impede—or even completely hinder—innovation from going forward. Yet, despite the innovation-adverse environment of UN organizations overall, we also found impressive evidence of successful innovations that changed beneficiaries’ lives and contributed to continuous organizational learning.

Individual Barriers: Fear of Change and Lack of Skills

By nature, human beings try to avoid change and uncertainty. While end users may be reluctant to adopt an innovative solution because of limited knowledge and skills, a similar problem occurs within the UN. For example, when her organization first started experimenting with emerging technology, one innovation unit member at the World Bank (WB) recalls that “the greatest challenge was the lack of knowledge around tech.”

Why? The types of individuals joining the UN are usually trained in negotiation, political science, and international relations, where technical know-how and managerial skills are not pronounced. Over time, these people rise through the system and are tasked with leading large globally distributed teams and now, to innovate and understand disruptive technology. This can lead to issues such as insecurity when faced with ethical decisions around technology, risk aversion due to the often sensitive nature of the data involved, and general lack of internal technical expertise. We observed that UN staff had a strong knowledge of the problems and needs on the ground, but often required partners and outside support for the technical components. For example, in a blockchain initiative from WFP, the team not only brought in outside experts to upskill a team, but also partnered with technology providers to build the technical components of the solution. We observed that perseverance, an intimate knowledge of the organization’s rules and regulations, and the ability to navigate bureaucratic processes are critical skills to successfully implement and scale an innovation. Without such management ability and a strong intrapreneurial spirit, innovators are often bound to fail, so upskilling UN leaders continuously becomes imperative.

Organizational Barriers: Knowledge Silos and Risk Aversion

The UN organizations have an enormous wealth of knowledge, but the sheer size of the operations results in knowledge silos instead of a collaborative network. The geographic spread of most UN organizations makes it hard to effectively capture and share locally created knowledge.

Another key obstacle is risk aversion due to accountability and ownership issues. This not only manifests itself in the organizations’ cultures but is also reflected in their allocation of financial and human resources. It results in a trade-off between funding of local operations creating immediate, short-term effects, and supporting innovative initiatives which can have long-term, but uncertain impact. Innovations emerging bottom-up usually require clearance from multiple units across hierarchical levels.

Organizations respond to this need by setting up designated innovation units which commonly take on a facilitating role and are tasked with the support and coordination of innovation projects in their organizations. The first such unit was formed in 2008 by UNICEF and by 2023, most UN organizations had created an innovation unit/lab or team. Their directives vary based on the way these units were set up (mandated from the top or developed in volunteer-like structures) and the missions of the organization (some units are focused on internal improvements while others focus more on ecosystem innovation). Despite their varying mandates, most of these units take on roles to improve internal innovation culture. They are, however, often bound by the same procurement processes as the rest of the organization and face stifling culture battles. Notable examples of innovation units include the International Trade Center (ITC)’s innovation lab which was established bottom-up through a voluntary initiative of ITC staff members in 2014, and WFP’s Innovation Accelerator launched in 2015 in response to an executive mandate.

Ecosystem Barriers: Cross-Sector Partnerships and Scale

Scale is imperative to generate impact against globally intertwined challenges, such as hunger, poverty, and climate change, but it requires managing the nexus between global challenges and local implementation. Due to the complex nature of innovation for the sustainable development goals, bringing projects to fruition requires many partners. Besides diverging strategic goals and interests in cross-sector collaborations, partners can vary substantially in terms of organizational capacities. Numerous internal gatekeeping processes and mechanisms mean the UN is often considered a bottleneck in collaborations—even in projects where it championed ideas.

One initiative champion from the UNFPA highlights the importance for a UN organization to comply with its transparency, accountability, and reporting obligations vis-à-vis member states, particularly in its use of funds, but in doing so, this slows down their ability to hire team members quickly and move at the same speed as their counterparts: “If those mechanisms are not adhered by, then at the end of the day, it's our country office that is being held accountable [by the government] for the entire project.” These issues are particularly pronounced when frontier technology such as blockchain or artificial intelligence is involved, as this may cause additional concerns related to data protection.

Overcoming Barriers: A Continuous Learning Journey

Despite these barriers to innovation, we saw successful initiatives make global impact, where inspirational idea champions were leading the way against all odds, and where powerful ecosystems of partnerships were built. For example, by engaging with partners on the ground, including local government, non-governmental organizations, and young people themselves, U-Report has scaled to 68 countries, benefiting over 11 million users worldwide. H2Grow has been deployed in 21 countries and reached more than 73,000 users.

We also saw that overcoming these critical barriers happens through coordinated organizational learning processes which enable organizations to create, obtain, and institutionalize knowledge. We found that organizational learning is not a traditional step ladder, where each project leads directly to the next level, but is a virtuous cycle where each project injects new sparks of knowledge that the organization absorbs, creating skills and updating its processes. UN organizations used three distinct mechanisms to overcome barriers and create learning for their organizations by embracing innovation.

Leveraging Internal Knowledge and Empowering People

As mentioned above, the sheer size of most UN organizations makes knowledge transfer difficult and reinforces silos and barriers between internal units. Our research showed that the success of innovative initiatives hugely depends on the person who initiated and championed them. An innovation lab member at the ITC explained that the reason why most innovations do not make it to the scaling phase is not because there is a lack of ideas but because “the staff member [who initiated the innovation] gets transferred to another project, and it really is all about the owner.” This shows the importance of institutionalizing individual knowledge through effective knowledge management.

Leveraging internal knowledge is one of the most essential elements of the continuous learning journey. It is a comparatively resource-efficient method to bridge knowledge gaps. Through the involvement of different staff members across organizational units and hierarchy levels, the innovator can tap into a diverse knowledge base to complement his or her own skillset. For BuildingBlocks, a WFP project which facilitates cash-based transfers, the WFP Innovation Accelerator enabled consultations with blockchain experts to help the internal treasury unit explore how blockchain can be used as the backbone of the project.

It is also key to identify influential people whose support can push the innovation through complex internal procedures and structures. The inclusion of diverse internal units in the innovation process needs to be carefully planned and can be a powerful means to create a sense of empowerment and oneness among the staff. The ITC Innovation Lab fosters collaboration by providing a platform for exchange, collaborative brainstorming, and culture building. As one member at the ITC Lab commented: “When we started, we realized the first thing we needed to do was around mentality and future. Because we would just keep hitting invisible barriers if we didn't work on this culture, this mindset." ITC has learned that bringing staff together to foster innovation is essential, and the dedicated Innovation Lab provides a safe space for such activities.

For internationally dispersed organizations of the UN, internal collaboration cannot stop at geographic borders. For the WFP Innovation Accelerator team, working closely with field staff is one of the key success factors of new initiatives such as H2Grow. One H2Grow team member explains: “It is very important from day one to involve the staff on the ground—to really engage them in a slightly different approach. They know the context, have the experience and local expertise.”

Integrating External Knowledge and Scaling Ecosystems

While the organizations of the UN arguably employ some of the smartest people in the world, resource constraints often hinder their ability to access talent, especially when it comes to new technologies. A common way to fill these knowledge gaps is by involving diverse stakeholders in an innovation’s development process and drawing on the skills and expertise of public- and private-sector partners. One innovation lab member from the World Bank explains her team’s motivation to engage in co-creation: “Why double invest and build a similar platform that is solving similar problems in two countries, when you can build a platform as a global public good?” The need to complement internally available knowledge and skills with external expertise is one of the World Bank’s main learnings as the organization continues to design and shape innovative solutions. In particular, it addresses diverse development challenges in its work with governments and public institutions globally. 

One initiative champion at UNICEF highlights that collaboration with private-sector actors is particularly important to innovate more efficiently and should be focused on creating shared value rather than financial benefits. Consequently, learning how to effectively engage with the private sector and involve partners throughout the process has been an integral part of UNICEF’s learning path and a key success factor in scaling some of their innovations.

Local stakeholders such as governments or beneficiaries often possess knowledge deeply rooted in communities which can facilitate the adaptation and implementation of an innovation in diverse country contexts. Particularly in the scaling phase, the importance of experimenting with the solution in the country was emphasized by a member of the H2Grow project team: “If you want to help an innovation grow, you have to be on the ground.” This is crucial for WFP to figure out what works and what needs improvement. She continues: “You can have an innovation in mind, but if you bring something that doesn’t solve a local problem and you don’t localize or adapt it, it won’t work.”

Creating Room for Experimentation

While internal and external knowledge provide a basis for innovation to happen, it does not sufficiently mobilize people to innovate and experiment. Figurative and physical spaces for experimentation are being created in different ways in organizations, but most see the need for a specific innovation unit to act as a focal point for field-based teams looking to test an idea. These innovation units often end up creating lab spaces within the organization which resemble start-up offices more than the formal meeting rooms of most UN buildings. Labs, such as ITC’s or the WFP Accelerator, bring in innovation methodologies to walk idea champions from idea to scale—while also acting as a bridge to the outside world to bring in external talent or funding when necessary. In general, figurative space for experimentation is still limited in most people’s day-to-day roles in the UN and we have seen the need for strong top-down support as key to enacting further openness in this regard.

Beyond Humanitarian Impact: What We Can Learn From the UN

In a nutshell, we suggest that the transformation of innovative insights into real innovation essentially happens through a series of learning processes that overcome the specific barriers faced by UN organizations which we identified at the individual, organizational, and ecosystem levels.

Knowledge created through internal and external knowledge integration mechanisms feeds into the experimentation process, which sits at the intersection between knowledge creation and innovation. The organization experiments with previously created knowledge through prototyping, piloting, and continuous adaptation of the innovation. It is through this process that prior knowledge is applied and tested. Experimental learning appears to be particularly integral in scaling processes to facilitate the improvement and adaptation of a solution to different requirements and country contexts. Rather than following a strict chronological order, the processes described above usually occur simultaneously and are iterative in nature while the organization develops, adapts, and scales the innovation.

The three key elements in this process are:

• Leveraging internal knowledge through the involvement of different units and particularly globally distributed staff in the development of innovations draws on broader skills and experience (individual-level barrier) and simultaneously avoids the occurrence of knowledge silos (organization-level barrier). Innovation labs can support innovations through complex internal procedures and structures (organization-level barrier), which is particularly valuable in the absence of intrapreneurial skills of field staff. Innovation units can also help overcome negative attitudes towards change as well as internal risk aversion.
• As solutions scale, they rely heavily on experimentation in different country contexts to ensure they meet local needs. The limited infrastructure (ecosystem-level barrier) and expertise (individual-level barrier) in countries where an innovative solution ought to be implemented requires clearly defined pilots to test viability and transferability. Similarly, even if an innovation is found to be viable during its piloting phase in one area, fundamentally different country contexts and conditions complicate the scaling process (ecosystem barrier) and require adaptation.
• The integration of external knowledge and skills of private sector organizations, NGOs, and local communities was a vital step in many UN organization’s successful learning journeys as it allowed for internal knowledge gaps (individual-level barrier) to be filled. The restricted resources available to international organizations (organizational-level barrier) motivates UN organizations to engage in partnerships, pool resources and create ecosystems.

While improving the lives of thousands of beneficiaries is certainly the primary motivation for UN organizations to engage in innovation, we discovered that their learning process does not end there. By imprinting new learnings from innovative initiatives in organizational routines, structures, and processes, organizations develop a capability for addressing their mandate in a new way. This means that innovations do not “only” address humanitarian challenges but can have a deeper transformational effect on how the organization itself functions. The organization does not only innovate through learning but simultaneously learns to innovate.

While organizational learning is traditionally mapped on a curve, viewing learning as part of the innovation process rather than an outcome allows us to see organizational learning as an infinity loop resulting in a virtuous cycle. New knowledge is created through collaboration, co-creation, and learning. Experimental learning applies the previously acquired knowledge while simultaneously and inevitably leading to the creation of new learnings, feeding back to the learning cycle. Thus, the learning mechanisms are complementary rather than separated or mutually exclusive. They connect to each other ad infinitum—allowing UN organizations to develop a capacity for continuous innovation.

Read more stories by Kerstin Chyba, Katherine Tatarinov & Tina C. Ambos.