Questioning or thinking outside the box? Why don't you try something else? "Think outside the box" as the English say... And the idea seduces to explore a new approach to addressing development challenges the Congo country!

UNDP launches the Accelerator Lab initiative. Congo is one of 60 countries globally to embark on this initiative. But then how can the UNDP country office build a forward looking multistakeholders partnership at the national level around this initiative to make it an indispensable and essential tool for development?  Thus, we considered that developing strong partnerships at the national level around the Acclab would be the key to positioning the initiative as a key and integral service for development. In this post we share our vision. It highlights the need to build on local expertise while revisiting how we bring and value innovation and further explore opportunities to build a strong partnership with state and non-state actors to be benefit of the country.

"Think outside the box" they say-- okay, why not "think deeply inside the box"; in other words, revisit our way of exploring and valuing local, endogenous innovations in order to reap the possibilities in an unlimited way and break new grounds in development approach.

 Will you tell us how? By thinking more heuristic, innovations, by arousing our curiosity. This makes it possible to generate a multitude of new ideas, often within reach, a source of innovation and which call for systematic use of the field of possibilities to provide pragmatic responses to the needs of populations living in a constantly changing world.

 Congo is one of 36 countries in Africa and among the 60 countries in the world to launch the Accelerator lab initiative. This initiative is based on 4 foundations, or even called protocols or services: sense-making; collective intelligence; solution mapping; portfolio of experiment. The concept? Leverage local capacities/skills to find pragmatic solutions to people's daily challenges and country development issues.

 How can this initiative be put into practice and put at the service of Congo's development? Brainstorming comes into play. But here it is necessary to go beyond the traditional brainstorming and move towards heuristics! Yes! it's simple, we question the common habits and traditional theories of development and do we think they are enough to meet the challenges of the 21st century?

 Answering this question is not easy at all! Indeed, an answer should be argued with a series of scientifically proven analyses, etc.    But good considering the current development challenges in our country, a piece of the answer seems to be needed and it looks like: "these traditional approaches certainly have some impacts, but they are not enough, and we might have to think "outside the box". Really? revisiting our way of current practice to explore possible solutions to the development challenges of the 21st century, is that thinking "outside the box? "Then with what types of partnerships and how?

The answer seems to be found: The Accelerator lab Congo initiative, which leads us to innovative partnerships for collective intelligence at the service of the country's sustainable and inclusive development.

It is a way of addressing concrete solutions to Congo's development challenges without letting anything slip away and without leaving anyone behind. Heuristics allows us to review a portfolio of potential solutions, which are a source of opportunities to identify drivers that contribute to complex development challenges by looking at multiple dimensions: political, economic, legal, institutional, social, environmental of the Congo. When a solution stands out and imposes itself as an obvious response to a critical development problem, this innovative solution emerges.  

The lab's sense-making - you remember one of the four protocols! - tells us that the solution to sustainable and inclusive development is local. Concrete solutions are emerging in universities or incubators, at the household and local community level but have difficulty in establishing themselves as pragmatic solutions that best meet the needs of Congolese populations and mainly the more vulnerable. It is therefore the moment to bring out these solutions that the Accelerator lab Congo finds all its justification and rationale. It aims to make each of us heuristics, in more common language, actors in our environment who map and support solutions that make sense and respond to the development challenges of the Congo.

 As we can see, it is therefore local Congolese expertise and local knowledge that are at the center of solutions to solve country development problems. This expertise is privileged because it already offers innovative ideas that improve people's well-being and daily lives. We do not forget the flash of genius, it has its place but is circumscribed in a global vision that takes the form of a portfolio of solutions. In the end, everything is paradoxical! Earlier we said, "think outside the box", but the evidence today leads us to affirm that it is from existing solutions that come the good ideas to explore, from where do we do what? We keep thinking "deeply inside the box", does that work?

 But how do you identify these solutions and include them in a development effort programming? And how can we think differently and jointly work with the Congolese partners to an approach that values innovation more? Traditional brainstorming is no longer enough to exploit all the innovative ideas, so it's up to us and the sky could well be the limit!

 We're still brainstorming and wondering how to revisit "think deeply inside the box" to make it a concept in the spirit of the times and that provides concrete solutions to our challenges of the 21st century?

Finally, we thought at the UNDP country office level that to revisit "think deeply inside the box", it would be appropriate in the context of the lab and reinforce the convergence between the new Country Programme and the AccLab services:

 1. Agree with the government partners on a common vision including an innovative approach for sustainable and inclusive development

Fostering innovation to respond to Congo's development challenges is an objective set by the Government and the Accelerator lab during a fruitful exchange where the minds were shaken and the business as usual strongly challenged.

At the end of through these exchanges, our Government partners understand that it is essential to move towards a new kind of collaboration in order to develop the Congolese innovation ecosystem and to bring out the Congolese local skills.

What is a new kind of collaboration? It means taking into account the solutions that Congolese people bring to their daily problems in order to make them real solutions for development thinking  in Congo.

But then, how can we move towards   this methodology? And above all, how can we avoid the mistakes of the past (projects that do not succeed) and ensure that the innovative concept of Accelerator lab becomes widespread and brings concrete results?

A response to which the Government seems to be the respective one: heuristic! That is, to exploit possible local skills and expertise for portfolios of possible solutions that will allow the development of pragmatic policies that respond to the social, economic and environmental realities of the Congo.

 This response leads the Government to revise its traditional brainstorming.

In the face of this constant, a positive appreciation of the Accelerator Lab initiative. Why? Quite simply, because the meeting allowed the national partners to seize the opportunity that the Accelerator lab offers to highlight local expertise and solutions, in short to promote Congolese know-how in terms of solutions to country development challenges

 But how can we make all this happen with our partners?

An answer in the form of questions from the main parties concerned:

·       Institutional anchoring of the lab accelerator

·       Concrete use and application of the laboratory;

·       Capacity building and accountability for the implementation of laboratory protocols;

·       Need to train technical experts from ministries

2. Agree with the private sector on a win-win partnership 

Innovation is a good thing. The meeting with the Congolese private sector allowed us to “brainstorm” in a different way and open them up to the possibilities offered by local expertise. The Congolese private sector is aware that the world in which it operates is becoming increasingly complex because it is interconnected. How to survive?

 To answer this question, the private sector has understood that the priority is now to capture innovation to better reinvent itself/themselves (re)position in the market and take advantage of local expertise and knowledge. This is therefore the meaning of the partnership that the Accelerator lab and the Congolese private sector intend to establish

 What's up?  

 The Accelerator lab has succeeded in making the private sector understand that a partnership should enable it to benefit from an experimental framework that exempts it from risk-taking, which is supported by the lab when it tests the mapped solutions. Thus, the win-win partnership between the Congo lab and the private sector can only lead to impactful investments in viable, pragmatic and solvent solutions that meet country development challenges.

 The idea is appealing, but the private sector is wondering: how

·       Create and encourage the use of collective intelligence in the private sector;

·       Help the private sector to recognize, capture signals, identify and understand the dynamics of complex problems;

·       Strengthening the capacity of the private sector to meet these challenges

For example, the microfinance institutions, widely represented at this meeting with private partners, wanted to understand the challenges of virtual currencies and blockchain on the future of their activities and how the Congo lab can work with them in meeting these challenges.

3. What about the young people in all this? 

Many young Congolese see innovation as the product of a technological revolution. Innovation is strongly linked to information and communication technologies. Many also, computer enthusiasts and developers for the most part, are wondering about the future of their application/discovery and innovation. And finally, others wonder about the technical and financial support that the lab initiative can put at their disposal to support them in the maturation of their ideas.

At the beginning of the meeting, the young people are somewhat doubtful: what's new? and above all, many move with the idea of attracting attention in order to receive support to fund/support the finalization of their invention. 

And yet, this encounter with Congolese youth has taken on a new dimension. In addition to encouraging them to question their perception and understanding of innovation, the meeting was also an opportunity for young Congolese to enrich their conception of innovation, to reflect on how to approach their environment in a different way in order to take advantage of the opportunities offered, which can lead them to evolve towards innovative projects that best meet their needs and those of the Congolese populations.

4. Revisiting "think deeply inside the box" also means measuring local capacities and skills by capitalizing on what already exists and seizing the opportunities offered 

To this end, the idea of mapping local solutions was welcomed with great attention. However, somewhat skeptical young people wondered how to get the population and young people in particular to think that they can be useful to the country's development through daily and practical solutions that they naturally thought of to facilitate their daily lives without classifying them as innovations and how to create a trigger to consider traditional solutions revealed in local communities differently and integrate them into their thinking focused on new technologies?

Another topic of discussion was intellectual property. Yes, intellectual property is a concern for young people and an important tool to unleash creativity, promote knowledge sharing and make solution mapping more effective. A question that has not yet been answered at this stage, but which strongly challenges us.

To want to revise the national brainstorming process is also to forge links with Congolese innovation practitioners for a win-win partnership. It is a matter of the UNDP innovation laboratory taking advantage of local knowledge and expertise and of innovation practitioners benefiting from the new impetus and even inspiration provided by the Accelerator lab.

 For these Congolese innovation practitioners, heuristics is both disturbing and captivating. It takes people beyond their thinking, beyond their way of doing things and understanding innovation in order to open up to the unknown by accepting that the unimaginable can become possible, the futile can have meaning and be considered as innovation.

Disconcerting! yes, innovation is not necessarily a great leap in technology, innovation can be conceived as a step backwards or even a present observation that values what is a solution for the country's development.

 Captivating because it leads to questioning, in the end curiosity is aroused and the need to be part of the Accelerator lab journey becomes almost self-evident.

 Thinking outside the box is the contract that now binds UNDP and these associations of practitioners. The challenge now is to get them to agree to revisit their brainstorming to move towards a much more disconcerting innovation software but strongly open to a wide range of possibilities.

 We realize that this stranger attracts. And this is how the PRATIC association, after having joined forces with UNDP during the innovation fair in Congo Brazzaville in April 2019, agreed to partner with UNDP in moving forward the Accelerator lab through mapping solutions and to use its skills to support future innovation champions in the process of maturing their projects

5.     What topics emerge when we talk about innovation in Congo Brazzaville and which could guide reflection at the lab level. Congo?

Reflect on social services projects including education, digital infrastructure, eco-tourism projects, ecosystem development and identification of niches including virtual currencies and the blockchain on the future of their activities

 This requires appropriate action in terms of:

•        Safety of people and their property;

•        Agriculture and access to credit;

•        Protection of intellectuel property;

•        Involvement of new technologies in microfinance (Crypto, currency, blockchain...).