TRANSFORM is a partnership between Unilever, the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and EY. The partners invited Brink to uncover new insights into their potential grantees and partners in Kenya, particularly within the informal economy, which is a staggering 83% of Kenya’s workforce. These workers are a vital source of employment, yet there is limited understanding of who these people are, the truth about how they work and live and where they operate. TRANSFORM, like other donor agencies, was eager to define their role and determine how best to support and shape these people. Our work alongside Laterite, ProCol Africa, Busara, and Ideas Unplugged convened street food vendors, farmers, YouTubers and many others who make up this 83% to dig deeper. Together we unearthed new ways of looking at perennial needs like access to affordable finance and uncovered key under-funded opportunities for a better future of work.
As the Covid-19 pandemic took its grip on the world in early 2020, global demand for oxygen surged. Pure oxygen in cylinders is expensive, and proved hard to find. Simple technology exists to turn ordinary air into medical-grade oxygen - but that technology is fragile, and manufacturers couldn’t see viable or profitable ways to build something tougher. By bringing people together to discuss the issues, we helped to pinpoint a crucial problem - and a simple solution, which saved thousands of lives.
As part of our work with the Africa Smart Towns Network of 11 cities across Africa (aka ASToN), Brink worked with the City of Matola in Mozambique on a project to increase tax income for the city council. Local officials were convinced that tax non-payment was because citizens were choosing to avoid paying taxes; but when they dug deeper, the team found very different reasons - and came up with creative new service ideas to experiment with.
We live in times of converging crises, exacerbating the number of people with unmet needs. The current global humanitarian system is struggling to effectively and efficiently respond - new ways of working must be adopted in order to drive real change. Creating Hope in Conflict: A Humanitarian Grand Challenge is the first innovation challenge to focus on humanitarian crises caused by conflict. Launched in 2018, partners collectively contributed USD $38 million to enable humanitarian actors and agencies, local emergency responders, and the private sector to work alongside affected communities to respond more nimbly to complex humanitarian emergencies. This Humanitarian Grand Challenge identifies and scales innovations to help people affected by humanitarian crises caused by conflict.
