Equity & Innovation

During the 2022-2023 strategic period, IDIA investigated shifting power through innovation practices and building equity metrics with learning partner, African Visionary Fund.  The Equity and Innovation initiative focused on three themes: i) fair funding practices, ii) equitable partnerships, which enable iii) greater agency and systems change. The initiative surfaced case studies of current innovation funding practices to identify promising practices, and key principles and metrics, as well as individual and institutional actions, which can be adopted to shift power and strengthen equity, inclusion and localization practices.

This work resulted in the IDIA Equity & Innovation Framework for Meaningful Localisation and was published in March 2024 and can be found here.

This initiative builds on prior diversity, equity and inclusion activities of IDIA. In 2021, an IDIA Equity and Inclusion Taskforce was designed to address the interrelationship between equity and inclusion, the individual, the institution, and the innovation development space. A four-part reading list was curated to support the Taskforce participants in their ongoing learning on the individual-level. An insight guide on reflective equity and inclusion practices and the correlating conducive institutional environment for these practices to take place was created to capture the institutional level-learning. Insights from the report informed the development of a tool to self-assess equity and inclusion in the design and development of an innovation across five themes: motivation, ownership, environment, action and assessment. Find the reading lists and Insight Guide below.

Prior to these initiatives, IDIA explored approaches, lessons and practices used by innovation and gender specialists to more holistically address gender equality and innovation.  Following this, IDIA applied this learning to prevent and respond to Gender-Based Violence. See the Insight Guides below to learn more.