Learning From the Peacekeeping Report on Tech Innovation

I just read through the "Final Report of the Expert on Technology and Innovation in UN Peacekeeping."

The report addresses many things that have been on our minds:

Page 104, starting at "C. Building a Culture of Innovation," to page 109, is especially in-ine. Some highlights from their recommendations:

1. DPKO and DFS should partner with—and learn from—others innovating within the UN system and with external leaders in technology and innovation.
2. DPKO and DFS should establish a dedicated office for technology and innovation, supported by a small advisory group and field-based innovation incubators, together with a small cadre of “technology scouts”, designated centres of excellence within the UN, and an “idea factory”.
3. DPKO and DFS should commit to a broad programme of continuous learning and training, and the establishment of forums where new technologies or innovations could be presented and discussed.

Notes on each of those:

1. I agree that we should meet with the people from every single innovation initiative happening across the system. These people should be our mentors and our support system. They can act as guides for all other innovation projects launching throughout the UN system. And if we do our job well, there will be many new innovation projects launching as a result of our work.

1. I like how they describe this, feel like it resonates and syncs up with with a lot of our strategy, and also think there are things we can learn from their thinking, including:
2. Establishing small "field-based," or department, office, or mission-based, incubators.
3. Mobilizing a collection of "technology scouts" to advise and inform the department. These could be people embedded in certain organizations, like PSFK, Singularity, or IFTF, who agree to "report back" to specific (or broadly across all) UN departments.

Their thinking around "centres of excellence" supports Taija's best practices sharing project. Their "idea factory" also sort of captures our long-term thinking around an accelerator program. They envision a single online tool to "source" ideas, vote on and select the winners, and identify volunteers to implement the__m.

1. What are our “forums where new technology and innovations can be discussed?” Workshops is part of it, but that’s very prescriptive. Like we talked about before, there might be other, more member-driven opportunities for this sort of conversation - for example: community-led hack nights, open salon-style meetups,

I'm interested in reaching out to Peacekeeping, seeing where this report went since its release, and learning if we can support their work and integrate it into our larger vision.

I'm wondering how much each of the innovation programs are speaking to each other. Do you think there's a knowledge exchange between innovation within OCHA, PK (if it's a thing), UNDP, UNCEF, etc? If not, we should make that happen. We have a lot to learn from all of them.