Innovation Camps

Innovation camps bring together diverse actors to explore development challenges from a user perspective and to collaborate in the design of solutions. Participants often include social entrepreneurs, community activists, government agencies, designers, technologists, and others. Together, they share experiences, generate insights into problems, brainstorm ideas, and test potential solutions. Innovation camps foster creativity, encourage experimentation, and create an environment for risk-taking and learning.

Innovating for Aswan to tackle development challenges in Aswan (Egypt)
Innovating for Aswan was a three-day innovation camp which called upon youth of the Egyptian governorate Aswan to tackle development challenges in their area. Forty five enthusiastic participants attended the workshop and, using the design-thinking methodology, created solutions that have the potential to become sustainable businesses to development challenges in Aswan.

Future Ready (Somalia)

UNDP Somalia, in collaboration with Microsoft, initiated the Somalia Future Ready project to accelerate the rate of innovative youth entering the high-tech industry and building start-ups. The project increases the technical and entrepreneurial capacity of Somali youths, focusing on coding and programming for the development of mobile applications that can be commercialized. The initiative gives Somali youth hands-on experience in creating new software and applications as well as the opportunity to develop their skills for careers in the digital world. The initiative ultimately aims to inspire them to innovate, share wisdom, and have a voice within the industry.

Violence against Women Youth Innovation Camp (Egypt)

There is no doubt that violence against women (VAW) is a major challenge in Egypt, in all its shapes and forms. Most prevalent cases are sexual harassment, domestic violence, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), forced marriage, and socio-economic discrimination. Exacerbating the problem is the fact that less than 5% of women seek help from the authorities. During a three-day social innovation camp, a group of 35 young women and men worked collaboratively on analyzing the root causes of underreporting, brainstorming solutions to encourage citizens to take a stand, and building low-cost prototypes to visualize their ideas.

First Social Innovation Camp for Youth from the Arab Region (2015)The First Social Innovation Camp for Youth from the Arab region (2015) was held for three days in Amman, Jordan. The main purpose was to provide a platform for young women and men to examine key development challenges facing the region and suggest innovative solutions to address them. The camp was the first event of its kind to be organized on a regional level by UNDP. The design thinking methodology was at the core of the innovation camp.