IDIN Quarterly Report October 1, 2012 – December 31, 2012

The network aims to create solutions by defining development problems, prototyping multiple solutions, performing comparative evaluations, and incubating ventures to disseminate the solutions. IDIN will develop and conduct an array of summits that vary in length and content, focusing on hands-on creative capacity building design summits to train people from diverse backgrounds to become innovators and entrepreneurs. The IDIN Consortium will establish innovation centers in phases over the grant period, starting in Brazil, Zambia, and Ghana, and then expanding to other summit sites as new consortium partners join. These centers will provide a meeting space for local innovators to gather, share ideas and resources, prototype, experiment, and refine their prototypes into products and projects into ventures. The centers will be equipped with rapid prototyping, digital fabrication, and telecommunications equipment to facilitate international collaborations with consortium members and between innovation centers. A research group established at MIT will direct continuous data collection, analysis, and synthesis focused on monitoring and evaluating the work of the consortium and rigorously assessing the social, economic, and political impacts of technologies generated by network members. The IDIN research group will also examine the impact of local innovation and social entrepreneurship within larger regional economic development frameworks. The dominant paradigm within international development emphasizes the role that multilateral agencies, governments, or civil society organizations can play in providing resources to people who lack basic services, lack education and employment opportunities, or lack the means to escape generational poverty. IDIN will engage students in development and prepare them to be the next generation of leaders in international development. The consortium will provide students with opportunities to work at innovation centers as a venue for co-creation when doing fieldwork on joint projects with IDIN members. Students will also receive basic entrepreneurship training and have the opportunity to incubate fledgling ventures. The centers will provide opportunities for experimentation and dissemination of technologies developed by consortium members, USAID, and other partners. The IDIN project is on track to meet its objectives, with a key emphasis moving forward to complete the hiring of dedicated IDIN staff, which will facilitate the completion of future activities and development of the long-term strategic plans. The project's work plan is focused on four main objectives: building a global network of innovators, creating a network of innovation centers and venture accelerators, better understanding the role of local innovation in the broader development context, and engaging students in development.