Innovation: Leveraging novel and transformative solutions for migrants and societies

Innovation is a critical driver of impact and systems transformation for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and its partners. This is especially crucial considering the increasingly complex migration landscape and the unprecedented number of people affected by humanitarian crises. As the UN migration agency, IOM is investing in new ways of thinking to scale up solutions and enable synergistic approaches. These include investing in developing capacities to look beyond single point solutions to explore opportunities for transformative change and piloting new approaches that can foster increased effectiveness, efficiency, and scalability of results.

IOM's Innovation portfolio is managed and coordinated by the Innovation and Knowledge Management (IKM) Unit within the Department of Policy and Research at IOM Headquarters in Geneva. The IKM Unit is the institutional focal point on knowledge management and innovation in relation to migration policy and programming. The Unit leverages innovative approaches and practices to enable systemic transformation, address pressing migration challenges, and strengthen partnerships with governments, the UN system, the private sector, academia, and innovation networks.

The Unit coordinates the IOM Innovation Awards, manages the internal knowledge sharing platform – Peer Exchange and Learning on Migration (POEM), and knowledge exchange activities such Konnect Learning Sessions, Talking Migration Podcast, and coordinates a range of global and regional initiatives to leverage knowledge and innovation as drivers of sustainable development. Click here to learn more about innovation at IOM.

Embedding innovation in a systemic approach allows the Organization and its partners to harness the potential of innovation not just as a quick fix, but as a core driver of long-term impact.

Migrant-centered, Diverse, and Inclusive

 

IOM’s innovation initiatives prioritize the well-being of beneficiaries, engaging them throughout the project lifecycle and ensuring transparency and accountability in decision-making processes. Continuous monitoring and evaluation are essential to identify and mitigate potential harm, fostering trust, sustainability, and ethical integrity in IOM's efforts to address migration challenges and support vulnerable populations.. Gender sensitivity and diversity inclusion form the cornerstone of IOM's innovation approach, as the organization continues to seek opportunities to harness and amplify the potential of migrants as a driving force behind innovation. The "Do no harm" principle in innovation projects embodies an ethical commitment to necessitate thorough risk assessment, beneficiary-centric approaches, and the safeguarding of human rights and environmental sustainability, as well as ensuring accountability to affected populations.

 

Networked

 

To confront the complex challenges faced by migrants and communities globally, IOM emphasizes the importance of fostering connections internally among its staff and externally with various partners to drive innovation and create value for its stakeholders. Collaborating with entities such as the UN system, private sector companies, and research institutes allows IOM to capitalize on external processes, technologies, innovations, and expertise of others, while harnessing its own strengths and assets. By integrating innovation into all aspects of its work, IOM ensures that staff consider it in programme design, policy intervention, and internal management processes, adding value to the organization's activities and meeting the evolving needs of its partners and beneficiaries.

Transformative

 

IOM is committed to driving transformative and impactful changes over the long term, employing a system thinking approach to innovation. This involves a deep understanding of the underlying systems and dynamics of the problems IOM seeks to address, enabling solutions to tackle root causes rather than surface-level symptoms. The aim is to design innovations that address systemic issues by creating interconnected programmatic ecosystems, where individual products and services are connected to form robust and scalable systems. .Advancing this vision for innovation calls for an organizational culture that embraces new ideas and the processes, resources, and systems to bring them to fruition. Innovation is considered by all IOM staff, including in programme design, policy intervention and internal management processes.

 

Future-looking

 

IOM’s innovative interventions include proactive measures, such as those on emerging issues that are informed by its global field presence and expertise in migration governance. IOM looks and thinks ahead by anticipating the needs and challenges faced by migrants in the future and developing resilient policy and program responses. IOM’s innovation benefits from impactful systems change and lasting and dynamic partnerships with the future-looking momentum that seeks to advance IOM’s innovation ecosystem forward. By keeping an open-minded attitude toward new methods, technologies and approaches, IOM endeavours to adopt solutions developed for the future today.