A) Objectives of the pledge:
In the face of rapidly evolving humanitarian needs, it is vitally important that the Movement prepare itself, adapt, and have quick responses to the constant evolution of social necessities. To maximize our impact within of the activities in the framework of regional and sub regional cooperation, open innovation and local experimentation are essential for an effective individual and collective response. Some of the future challenges can’t be foreseen. Nevertheless, the ability to innovate is something that can allow us not only to anticipate but also to adapt to the unexpected.
On many occasions’ innovation is not promoted as an effective way to collectively address existing and emerging humanitarian challenges or to capitalize on our capacity to generate new practices or boost existing ones.
Our extensive networks and close community ties, National Societies are uniquely positioned to develop responsive and tailored solutions. To fully realize this potential, the Movement must embrace collaboration—opening our innovation processes to external partners such as private companies, startups, and academia. This will bring fresh perspectives and amplify our collective impact.
This pledge aligns with the 34th International Conference, specifically with the objective of “Promoting the autonomy of local leadership, capacity, and implementation in principled humanitarian interventions and resilience building”. It presents Social Innovation as a lever of transformation of our National Societies with an essential role in future challenges:
- The design of our work teams
- The relations within the components of each National Society
- The multilateral collaboration in the Movement
We will form a strengthened resilient innovation ecosystem that will work as a system, with local communities, leaders, teams and volunteers, able to anticipate and quickly adapt to changing contexts and trends.
Three lines of action are proposed to promote this transformation process and to support National Societies and their development as solid and efficient local agents, as well as to encourage distributed networking:
- Boost shared knowledge on social innovation within National Societies, cultivating a culture that responds to current trends and fosters widespread adoption across the Movement.
- Support the transformation of systems and structures to meet evolving needs, encouraging innovation, agility, and a stronger capacity to anticipate future challenges.
- Commit to sustainability in innovation by embedding sustainable practices and prioritizing knowledge transfer across Societies.
The functioning of the Red Cross and Red Crescent organizations has gone through different approaches throughout our history. Today, in line with the Tbilisi Commitment, “Together we are stronger”, we try to work as a system formed by a set of elements that are part of a whole and respond to the same objectives with the same strategy.
With this pledge, we are looking for internal changes within the organizations present in the Movement, as well as entities, private and public agents with whom we cooperate in our network, so that:
- We should accelerate the incorporation of innovation into the nature of our National Societies and the working model as a system.
- We should collaborate with other sister National Societies in the adoption of our strategies of inclusive innovation and systemic change to maximize our impact
B) Action plan:
The pledge is aligned with the Action Plan of the X Assembly of the Spanish Red Cross, Strategic Line 4: “A Red Cross that works for the Transformation, the talent, and transparency” intending to promote systemic functioning. Additionally, in the Spanish Red Cross International Cooperation Plan (2023-2026) an innovation line is included with the promotion of innovative solutions to maximize the impact of cooperation programs and to promote actions that encourage partnerships with innovation centers and platforms of the Movement itself, as well as public and private entities that work with this orientation.
Aligned with similar principles, the French Red Cross’s 2030 Strategic Plan aims to build resilience among vulnerable populations by equipping them to face crises through education and capacity building. This strategy places a strong emphasis on resilience, innovation, collaboration with public and private sectors, and sustainability. Operationally, innovation permeates every level of the French National Society, which actively promotes the adoption of new technologies, experimentation with organizational models, and rigorous impact measurement to enhance the effectiveness of its actions.
For its implementation, the following three initiatives are proposed, each one with a different approach:
1.- Promote and maintain listening and collective learning spaces, like platforms of innovations, networks of work, and other spaces of analysis where the needs of National Societies can be detected and anticipated and where challenges are shared to improve the response. These spaces foster partnerships with other social actors and allow for a humanitarian response that is more adapted to people’s needs.
- ACTION 1: Maintain and expand the scope of the Social Innovation Network Platform. Founded by the French and Spanish Red Cross in 2022, with the collaboration of the Solferino Academy, other National Societies, foundations, and social enterprises, the platform shares knowledge on evaluated social innovations and support National Societies by boosting their capacity to respond to humanitarian challenges. It regularly publishes innovative solutions in English, French, Spanish, and Arabic: https://www.red-social-innovation.com/en/.
- ACTION 2: Promote local action and the exchange of best practices through learning, experience sharing, and technical support within National Societies. This fosters collaboration and strengthens partnerships within the international Red Social Innovation ecosystem…
- ACTION 3: Encourage the transfer, scalability, and sustainability of solutions and knowledge shared through innovation platforms (including Red Social Innovation).
2.- Encourage the development of National Societies, to obtain stronger and more relevant local members within their field of work, fostering online work, collaborative and shared learning, finding value, and supporting peers to peer’s work. Initiatives of technical support focused on exchanging of experiences and knowledge will be essential to promote more innovation in organizations and communities, defining and taking on strategies of high impact on a social level.
3.- Development and boosting of strategies whose mission is to accelerate the processes of transformation and systemic change of National Societies, turning innovation into a reality that allows it to permeate all levels of the organizational structure to be more resilient and to have better adapted responses to changing crisis contexts.
- ACTION 1. Analyze the existing strategies for social innovation and transformation, which should have clear goals within the national, transnational, and international spheres.
- ACTION 2. Generate platforms of active listening and continue, to promote spaces for exchange and support with common objectives within the Movement.
- ACTION 3. Elaborate a standard proposal to evaluate the potential impact of innovation (at a project level, pilot, or prototype) in a different National Society, offering actors support tools when making decisions.
C) Indicators for measuring progress:
Promote and maintain listening spaces, detecting social needs and collaborative learning, like platforms of innovation: Red Social Innovation
- The number of National Societies and humanitarian aid entities that join or publicize their innovation initiatives through participation and dialogue channels.
- The number of studies or reports on relevant topics to promote systemic change in the National Societies.
- The number of meetings and webinars on knowledge exchange and transformation and how to accelerate it, with reflections from various actors on topics such as transitions, agents, movements, institutional change, evidence, scale, capacities, catalysts, and systemic change.
Development of new channels for participation and collaborations, based on technical cooperation, and the exchange of ideas, experiences, dialogue, collaboration, and the conduction of studies and mutual learning
- The number of National Societies with which knowledge sharing is carried out to boost their resilience in contexts of crisis, conflict, or inequalities, with strong volunteering, and greater involvement of their staff and the community to help the most vulnerable people effectively.
- The number of participations in external networks and communication channels to increase capacities and extract lessons learned to enable collaborative innovation with other social actors.
- The number and quality of collaborations carried out with other National Societies or local actors: dialogue processes, consultation, exchanges, and medium – or long-term partnership strategies.
Analysis and prospecting on social innovation standards in the humanitarian context
- The number of National Societies with have their own social innovation and transformation strategies, with clear objectives, on a national, transnational, or international level.
- Experimental standard proposal to evaluate the potential impact of an innovation in a different National Society, providing stakeholders with a decision support tool.
D) Resource implications:
Human resources belonging to the French and the Spanish Red Cross will work together to monitor and report the pledge. Likewise, for the fulfilment of the indicators, appropriate financial resources will be made available from both National Societies.