2019_CO-CREATION AND SOLUTION TRANSFER

Contextualisation and transfer of digital solutions and services

icebauhaus has continued consulting GIZ in its second edition of the Innovation Factory program since 2018, succeeding the initial technical consultancy in the field of ICT for agriculture in the global south that began in 2015. Due to new priorities and an adapted conceptual framework we now focus on the co-creation aspects of an interregional setting and the transfer of digital solutions and services.

Within the framework of the GIZ Innovation Factory, co-creation has a much broader definition than in the industrial context of product development. Innovative solutions are created through targeted, interdisciplinary and intercultural cooperation. Topics and actors are scouted while taking into account existing innovation networks and a methodological toolbox based on established approaches such as User Centered Design or Design Thinking is applied to the innovation process. In addition, individual forms of joint innovation processes will be developed in line with the transnational character of the projects.

The methodological approach requires a consistent comparison of the individual project ideas to digital innovation with the as yet unknown real circumstances of the respective contexts. The term “digital innovation” refers to a variety of options for the introduction, renewal and improvement of products, processes or services that either rely directly on the application of digital media and tools or that expand their usage by connecting digital technologies with new operating and business models.

We cooperate with local networks to prepare transfer and implementation of proofed concepts and tools helping to address diverse challenges by a tailored format of field trips and workshops for initial user and stakeholder analysis and contextualisation of the existing solutions.

Mexico: Avoid plastic litter and protect the environment

Urban and plastic waste management and recycling facilities in the City of Cancún in Quintana Roo province are poorly developed. Illegal landfills pose environmental threat, add to disaster risk by clogging relevant sewage pipes and contribute to the littering of habitats on land. Especially, all sorts of (plastic) waste at the many beaches in the City of Cancún threaten the reputation as a pristine Caribbean tourist destination. Various initiatives around the globe have tried to tackle the manifold issues around waste management and educational initiatives have been developed to increase awareness. Supported by a study tour and the Solution Transfer Workshop in 2019, two solution providers are now planning the adaptation of their products and services to the local context of the Cancún area.

CHECK: ecolana website / algramo webiste

Ethiopia: Prototype off-grid energy supply in Lake Hashenge area

The Solution Transfer and Ideation Workshop that was organised in Mekelle in November 2019 was intended to bring together local multidisciplinary experts and makers with representatives of the user communities for an initial co-creation process to explore opportunities and generate ideas towards a concept for a prototype implementation of a renewable energy approach for the initially drafted scenario of fishing and farming communities around Lake Hashenge in the North of Ethiopia. The ensuing user-oriented research and small-scale prototyping phase is planned to take place in early 2020.

Senegal, Ghana, Ethiopia: Female Digital Spaces

Women are underrepresented worldwide as regards the usage and production of digital media. In general, the Innovation Factory co-creation approach aims to promote a women initiated and led discourse in digital media and the “Female Digital Spaces” project approach will revolve around the assembly, examination and adaptation of digital tools and methods to improve the effectiveness and safety of female digital spaces. Such tools include in particular those of virtual collaboration, data-based journalism and digital story telling, online hate speech mitigation and fact-checking.