From Ideation to Action: Six Insights from Designing a Climate Adaptation Programme
Discover how WFP Innovation Accelerator together with WFP country offices in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt is sourcing, supporting and scaling regional climate innovations.
By Sanjna Sudan, with insights from Asia Sultan, Dahy Ahmed, Jose Shehata, Malena Macassi and Zehui Qiu
Communities worldwide are increasingly feeling the impact of climate change, a major driver of global hunger. Over the past decade, 1.7 billion people have endured extreme weather events and climate-related disasters. To break the cycle of crisis and response, climate action must prioritize preparedness, protection, and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of existing humanitarian interventions before climate shocks occur. Collaboration among multiple stakeholders is essential, as climate change affects us all and has far-reaching consequences in a globalized world. Additionally, increased investment in innovative climate solutions is crucial.
Therefore, the WFP Innovation Accelerator and the Adaptation Fund have launched the Climate Adaptation Innovation Accelerator Programme. This US $10 million initiative, part of the Adaptation Fund Climate Innovation Accelerator (AFCIA) partnership, will run for the next five years to support regional and local climate innovations in target countries. This year, the focus was on Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt.
In preparation for this call for applications, the WFP Innovation Accelerator, together with WFP country offices in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt, organized three workshops to align on prevalent country specific climate challenges and identify solutions that can be sourced through the innovation challenge and scaled as part of the Climate adaptation Innovation Accelerator Programme.
Whether you are part of an organization developing a climate adaptation programme or a human-centered design expert, we hope these six insights from our experience thus far, will be helpful in your programme design journey. We are still in the early stages and are continuously gathering insights as we progress in our journey to design and execute this unique climate adaptation programme in the Middle East:
#1 Anchor the Programme in Design Thinking
The WFP Innovation Accelerator believes that design thinking can unite diverse insights, knowledge and expertise from communities to co-create solutions for a climate-resilient future.
Therefore, we involved stakeholders in the design phase itself. This included each country’s government representatives, other UN agencies, local country offices and various WFP units such as programming, partnerships, communication and technical climate units in Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt. At the WFP Innovation Accelerator, we have designated team members as ‘Country Leads’ to guide and advance the exploratory and co-creation phases tailored to each country’s specific needs.
These Country Leads collaborated with their designated country office teams to identify climate adaptation challenges in regional food systems, align national governments and other relevant stakeholders on potential solutions and plan how to source, support and scale the best climate adaptation solutions.
#2 Focus on Both: Communities we serve and innovators as enablers
We believe that the best way to support the communities we serve is to source innovations from within the communities or those that can potentially scale there, and therefore the Climate Adaptation Innovation Accelerator programme focuses on both climate-vulnerable communities and innovators as its key target group.
This human-centered design approach not only gained endorsement and buy-in but also helped us identify champions within the existing ecosystem (such as government and NGOs) who could support solution scoping.
“At WFP, we’re very concerned about the impact of climate change on food security, but we’re also quite excited and passionate because we recognise that there are a lot of innovations that can help local communities mitigate and adapt to these negative impacts of climate change on their local food security situation” shared Jean-Pierre de Margerie, Country Director, WFP Egypt.
#3 Build Collaborations for Leveraging Existing Know-how and Local Advocacy
The programme also recognizes that WFP colleagues in country offices are key enablers in reaching the innovators and the communities we serve.
Therefore, before and during the workshops, WFP Innovation Accelerator team members identified their needs through direct interactions and leveraged the deep local knowledge of colleagues from country offices. By utilizing the existing climate workstream insights and co-designing workshops based on previous studies, exercises and research, we avoided reinventing the wheel. Desk research and expert studies were also crucial in framing problem areas.
Collaborating with each country’s governments, supported by the country offices, provided in-depth insights and strengthened advocacy within the local innovation and startup ecosystems. Stakeholders appreciated the inclusive approach and were enthusiastic to contribute in their capacities.
For instance, including different stakeholders in Jordan enriched the diversity of problems and solutions explored. Stakeholder suggestions allowed us to view problems through a wider systems lens, avoiding the limitations of a single perspective. This approach also helped us identify new stakeholders such as Jordan’s National Agricultural Research Center to involve in various stages of design and implementation.
“Climate change is threatening Jordan’s natural resources, which poses a serious threat to the agriculture sector. Jordan possesses a strong entrepreneurial landscape, which can develop solutions to address these climate challenges, benefiting not only farmers but entire communities,” said Laurene Goublet, WFP Deputy Country Director in Jordan.
#4 Align with priorities of the stakeholders the country
Instead of reinventing the wheel, it is crucial to be in sync with government priorities and/or those of WFP country office to plan for the sustainability of a programme in a country.
For example, in Egypt, building on existing government initiatives, such as the COP Climate Tech Run and the National Initiative for Smart Green Projects, ensured our innovations complemented rather than duplicated efforts. Aligning with the Egypt National Climate Change Strategy (NCCS) 2050 and the Energy, Water & Food Nexus (NWFE) towards Green Transition was important for sustainability. Inclusion of government perspectives ensures smooth implementation and transition, leveraging their expertise to serve national priorities.
#5 Create a Sense of Community
Fostering a sense of community and collaboration among a broader group of multi-organizational teams mitigates potential challenges when working with diverse stakeholders. It creates awareness of potential synergies, ensuring the programme’s success. Building a collaborative community supports sustainability and ensures successful exit strategies or handovers that facilitate scaling up initiatives.
“The objective of bringing together diverse stakeholders to discuss adaptation and innovation was not only highly informative but also provided the right roadmap for our efforts. Having colleagues from various backgrounds — such as small and medium enterprises, universities, government, and cooperating partners — proved invaluable in helping us understand and adapt our resilience programme for climate change adaptation” shared Antoine Renard, Deputy Country Director, WFP Lebanon.
#6 Design for Sustainability and Scale
We emphasize the importance of testing, failing fast, and building for scale. At the WFP Innovation Accelerator, we achieve this by collaborating with a diverse range of experts to support our teams and rigorously test business models that ensure sustainability. Additionally, we connect our teams with various partners through multiple channels to help them with fundraising for their work. Therefore, from the outset, we designed this programme with insights from country offices, aiming to source innovative solutions that can rapidly scale.
For example, stakeholders in Jordan felt that while the ideas and platforms offered by incubators and acceleration programmes are valuable, they often prioritize novelty over the long-term sustainability of ventures — something our stakeholders wanted to avoid. Keeping this feedback in mind, we detailed our process of working with experts to design, test, and implement scaleable innovations, which helped secure stakeholder support. This approach ensures long-term viability, benefiting both the startups selected in the Accelerator phase and the supporting entities.
In the face of the ongoing climate crisis, our future is unpredictable. This uncertainty demands greater collaboration, stronger commitment and increased investment to develop solutions for adapting to our new reality.
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