HIP2015, Session: Humanitarian Innovation: How to balance short-term results with long-term vision?

Panellists Kim Scriven, Humanitarian Innovation Fund, Pascal Daudin, ICRC, Johan Karlsson, Better Shelter. Chair: Marpe Tanaka, MSF Sweden Innovation Unit.
For emergency-oriented organisations in the humanitarian sector, responding quickly to rapidly emerging crisis situations is absolutely crucial. However, a major challenge facing humanitarian organizations is how to maintain a balance between addressing short-term needs and building an innovation capability to meet long-term challenges. The emergency-oriented mind-set often leads to prioritization of short-term problem solving and neglects the exploration of long-term challenges and opportunities for innovation. This panel brings together representatives from MSF Sweden Innovation Unit, the Humanitarian Innovation Fund, the ICRC and Better Shelter to discuss how to successfully achieve a balance between the short-term and the long-term, and to explore the role of patience and trust in creating a sustained innovation capability in humanitarian organizations.