Innovation Management System in Burundi

Jan-sep,2019

Client

CARE Burundi

Role

Design Strategist, Researcher

Deliveries

Innovation management system, tools, capacity building workshops

 

OVERVIEW

Since 1994 CARE Burundi has been championing the rights and empowerment of women and youth in a country which has continued to face complexity and crisis. CARE Burundi enlisted the support of CARE USA’s Innovation Team to advise on their strategy to activate the Nawe Nuze Innovation Hub. Over the course of nine months, our team:

  1. Capacitated a core team in lean experimentation and human-centered design skills,

  2. Designed an innovation management system using a stage-gated, iterative, validation-driven approach to developing and investing in new ideas, and

  3. Catalyzed new ideas for non-traditional program models.

“In a 2016 CARE global survey of over 5,000 staff, 86% of CARE staff reported that they had or knew about an innovative idea but only 13% of them knew the support systems or resources within CARE to test, iterate and bring those ideas to life. ”

Challenges and Opportunities in Burundi

  • Deepen the impact of the teams work in Burundi 

  • Changing donor environment

  • Lack of tools, capacities, and resources

Key stakeholders

CARE Burundi: Country Director, Regional Program Quality Director, Program Director, Innovation Specialist, Program managers x5

My role & tEAM:

Project Lead (started from the phase 2), Design Strategist, Researcher, Training Instructor 

  • Designed & iterated tools to help staff to smoothly adapt approaches to work

  • Upskilled staff and supervised their experimentation process

  • Conducted secondary research to learn the behavior change, leading challenges, and prioritize needs.

  • Facilitated workshops to refine management processes, identify pipeline metrics and establish the theory of change for the trajectory.

Innovation Service Team:

Director: Tim Bishop | Senior Advisor: Dane Wetschler | Design Strategist: Grace Hsieh | Program officer: Dana Tzegaegbe

Time

6 months intensive engagement with additional 3 months optional virtual office hours support