2018/21 HUM Innovation

Three innovation projects are planned for 2018-21 under lot HUM. One is the partnership with CAFOD on our joint strategy-driven and sustaining innovation pilot towards developing capacities of local partners as first responders (CADEV in Niger and KMSS in Myanmar) in line with the Grand Bargain work stream #2 on localisation and Caritas Denmark’s commitments towards C4C and the Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS). Results from this pilot are starting to show when the local partners in Myanmar managed to be first humanitarian responder during the recent floods in Myanmar, applying some of the tools and methods they had required through the pilot. The second pilot is opportunity-driven and disruptive innovation implemented with the newly established Danish engineer company researching in solar power solutions, Pesitho, and Engineering students from the Aarhus University (taking lead on the learning component). Pesitho has developed a clean solar-powered multipurpose kitchen prototype, the ECOCA, which provides a potential solution to the deforestation taking place around many refugee settings. Starting in 2018, Caritas Denmark is testing the prototype in two refugee/IDP settings in Uganda and Myanmar. During the test, 100 households will receive an ECOCA, whereby the risk of pollution by kitchen smoke and the burden of collecting firewood will be lifted, including a reduction of risks of violent and sexual assaults for women and children fetching firewood. Besides being a cooking device, the ECOCA is equipped with LED lights and output for other electrical devices. This allows for after sundown activities and income generating activities based on electricity, such as mobile-charging, hairdressing etc. During the pilot, behavioural changes of the beneficiaries will be studied and a learning component included. Depending on the test outcome, it is envisaged in 2019 under Lot CIV to demonstrate an optimized version of the unit for a larger scale of actors, incl. exploration of options for local production. By late 2018, another opportunity-driven and disruptive pilot is in the pipeline. This involves the testing of the instruction manual of the “Solar Sack”. The Solar Sack is a low-cost container that can purify four litres of water, chemical-free, in four hours using the technique of solar pasteurization. This is an alternative to boiling water, which removes the need for wood fuel to boil water. In 2019, Caritas Denmark plans to test the behavioral patterns related to the usage of the Solar Sack, once the instruction manual has become final. This will establish possible needs for alteration of the design as well as the user willingness to pay for the product. Later the same year, pending the findings on this study, a third phase is scheduled on the Solar Sack collaboration.