Social Innovation Lab

Our objective

Launched in October, 2011, the Social Innovation Lab seeks to institutionalize innovation at BRAC and create an inclusive space where ideas are shared, nurtured, and translated into action.  We look for ways to better align BRAC’s activities with its overall strategic priorities and better take advantage of emerging opportunities. While we do not implement any pilots on our own, we provide internal support to pilots when needed. Our long-term goal is to enhance BRAC’s overall capacity for managing internal innovation and foster organizational-wide dialog and mobilization.

Our approach
After a year of experimentation, we’ve settled on four key areas where we aim to add value: 

1. Creating mechanisms to engage staff in problem solving
2. Supporting and incubating new cross-cutting initiatives
3. Serving as a “front door” for new ideas and potential partnerships
4. Driving a regional network around “doing while learning,” focused on scaling up social innovations (kicking off with the 1st Frugal Innovation Forum on March 30-31, 2013)

Learn more 

• Building to last: creating a platform to tackle urban poverty (August, 2012)
• Video on how 'urbanization' and migration are changing both cities and villages in Bangladesh (August, 2012)
• Video summary of Investing in Youth forum(April, 2012) and accompanying publication on youth entrepreneurs
• Our posts on the BRAC blog
• Archive of newsletters:
  - Year in review 2012
  - October 2012

Have a great idea to share?
Contact us at innovation (at) brac.net or submit an idea online!