Championing innovation and intrapreneurs in the World Food Programme

A closer look at the first ever WFP Innovation Champions 2021 Global Event

By Natalie Magee

Innovation has always been an important component of how the World Food Programme (WFP) works towards achieving its mission of Zero Hunger. The WFP Innovation Champions Community is an initiative of the WFP Innovation Accelerator that supports and empowers WFP staff to become “intrapreneurs” or agents of change who drive innovation within WFP and accelerate solutions to end hunger. Members are provided with opportunities to voluntarily participate in knowledge sharing sessions and events on the topic of innovation at WFP and connect with more than 350 fellow Innovation Champions across 95 duty stations in 65 countries at WFP locations around the world.

To mark the first year anniversary since the launch of the Innovation Champions Community, the WFP Innovation Accelerator recently hosted the first WFP Innovation Champions Global Event. This flagship event brought together the members of the community and took place over two days from 13–14 October 2021. This unique and interactive special event was designed to inspire community members with practical and actionable advice on innovating at WFP and enable them to network and share ideas, learnings and best practices with fellow Innovation Champions.

In his introductory remarks during the Innovation Champions 2021 Global Event, WFP Executive Director David Beasley explained why a culture of innovation in WFP is necessary: “(Innovation) is an incredibly powerful tool that will help us find new ways to improve the lives of the people that we serve all over the world. Business as usual won’t get us to Zero Hunger by 2030. We need a place where smart ideas can be tried and tested, refined, scaled up so that they become the game changing solutions that help us reach our destination faster.”

The event was filled with new ideas, innovative solutions and practical advice has already created an overwhelming flurry of follow up activity. Community members reached out to one another for potential collaborations, investigated replicating solutions in new locations, and signed up for the 2022 Project Incubation Programme, that was announced during the event.

Watch our video highlights from the 2-day global event!

Watch some insights from the Innovation Champions 2021 Global Event

We are looking forward to an even stronger and more collaborative second year of the WFP Innovation Champions Community and hope to showcase some of its outcomes at the 2022 Global Event next year!

Bonus: Thinking about establishing your own virtual community? Check out this article with our top five tips for getting started!

The WFP Innovation Accelerator sources, supports and scales high-potential solutions to end hunger worldwide. We provide WFP staff, entrepreneurs, start-ups, companies and non-governmental organizations with access to funding, mentorship, hands-on support and WFP operations.

Find out more about us: http://innovation.wfp.org. Subscribe to our e-newsletter. Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn and watch our videos on YouTube.