Bridging the Gap: Innovative Approaches to Solving Local Challenges with Greater Impact
In today's fast-changing world, innovation is often hailed as the key to solving complex problems especially in humanitarian settings. But too often, there is a big gap between the ideas of developers and the real needs of the people they are trying to help. Many solutions fail because they ignore cultural context, exclude affected communities, or are simply not user-friendly.
This disconnect is not just a problem in humanitarian work. Even in general product design, leaving out the end users often results in tools that are impractical or lack market fit. The answer? Human-centered and participatory design approaches. These methods prioritize user input at every stage, ensuring that the solutions created are relevant, inclusive, and truly effective.
This article explores how putting people at the heart of innovation leads to more sustainable and impactful outcomes. Whether you are working in a refugee camp or building a new app, meaningful engagement with users can make all the difference.
Rethinking What Innovation Really Means
While facilitating a design thinking session with directors of civil society organizations, I asked a simple question to test their understanding of innovation:
“Raise your hand if you believe innovation must involve technology, be disruptive, cutting-edge, complex, futuristic, and different.”
Surprisingly, nearly 98% raised their hands in agreement with this misleading idea.
It is a common misconception. Many people, including businesses, wrongly equate innovation with high-tech or fancy solutions. But the most important component of innovation is not technology it’s people.
Yes, technology can be part of innovation, but it’s not the definition of it. Innovation, at its core, is about solving problems in simple and effective ways. As defined by the Humanitarian Innovation Guide, “Innovation is an iterative process that identifies, adjusts, and diffuses ideas for improving humanitarian action.” It can be a novel idea or a creative way to address a need, but it always starts with understanding the context and the real challenges people face.
When Good Intentions Fall Short
In my experience as a humanitarian worker, I have seen firsthand how failing to include the target community in the design of a project can lead to poor results.
Our team once launched a digital literacy program for youth in IDP camps and host communities. While the training was successful in teaching basic digital skills, it did little to help participants access digital jobs or income opportunities. Why? Because we didn’t fully involve them in the design process.
Later, in another organization, we received funding to empower marginalized groups with digital skills for the digital economy. Again, we designed courses and created materials without involving the learners themselves. And once again, while training delivery was smooth, very few participants were able to secure jobs or start businesses online.
This pattern of partial success made me realize the critical importance of user involvement. Without it, even well-funded and well-intentioned programs can fail to achieve their full potential.
A Widespread Problem
At first, I thought these challenges were unique to my team or my country, Nigeria. But then I read a powerful article by Giulia Balestra from the UNHCR Innovation Service, titled “When Innovation is Yet Another Connected Community Centre: Connectivity at the Margins of Innovation.”
She highlighted how many global projects aimed at closing the digital divide fall into the trap of a “one-size-fits-all” approach. They fail because they don’t take local context or user realities into account. The article opened my eyes to how widespread this problem is and how urgently it needs to be addressed.
During my one-year Innovation Fellowship with UNHCR, this awareness, combined with practical experience, fundamentally changed the way I approach innovation.
Shifting to Inclusive, Participatory Design
Armed with these insights, our team began to make significant changes. We organized reflection meetings, conducted evaluations, and engaged with communities more actively. We held co-creation sessions, stakeholder consultations, and feedback workshops. We even formed partnerships with government bodies, private IT hubs, and development agencies.
These changes had a big impact. Our new approach led to higher engagement, better learning outcomes, and greater livelihood success for program participants. Most importantly, the communities we serve felt a sense of ownership over the programs.
We used innovation tools like Design Thinking, Modern Agile, Problem Definition Canvases, Empathy Mapping, User Journey Mapping, Prioritization Matrices, and Fast Idea Generators. These tools helped us better understand our users and build more effective solutions. With continuous learning, testing, and improvement, we are now much closer to closing the "learning-to-earning" gap for our participants.
Government and Private Sector Collaboration
Interestingly, we are also seeing a shift in the government’s approach. There is growing recognition of the need to involve communities in program design and execution. Government agencies are becoming more open to working with private sector innovators, startups, and development partners.
This shift has led to stronger programs with higher community participation, and a measurable contribution to Nigeria’s broader digital transformation and digital economy growth.
The Core Message: People First
Frank Chimero once said, “People ignore design that ignores people.” This quote perfectly sums up the message of this article.
For innovation to be successful whether in humanitarian aid, business, or technology it must start with the people it's meant to serve. Solutions need to be built with communities, not just for them.
Innovation thrives on collaboration and diversity. Great design is not about being complex or futuristic. It's about understanding people deeply and solving their problems effectively and respectfully.
Conclusion
Innovation is not just about flashy tools or new technology. It’s about people. It’s about solving problems in ways that make sense to the people experiencing them. By using inclusive, participatory methods, we can build better solutions, deliver greater impact, and create lasting change starting right where we are. Let’s put people at the center of innovation.
By Albashir Ishaq Ibrahim, WSA Youth Ambassador in Nigeria.
