Kaizen supported open innovation and grand challenges throughout USAID by identifying innovators, assessing their business models, facilitating their activities, and accelerating their impact.
Catalyst is an adaptable platform that enables the Global Development Lab’s Center for Development Innovation to support USAID in empowering host countries to achieve development impacts quickly and efficiently. Working as an integrated team, the Catalyst consortium (Resonance, Kaizen, Moonshot Global, and Global Knowledge Initiative) provides a suite of technical assistance, partnership facilitation, staffing, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation services. Catalyst also delivers demand-driven assistance and mentoring to innovators funded by the Center for Development Innovation and partners.
Highlights
- Created 50-plus country and regional profiles with overviews of innovation ecosystems
- Conducted reviews of more than 500 Development Innovation Ventures applications
- Coauthored Innovator Guidebook: Navigating Business Models for the Base of the Pyramid in Water and Energy for Food
- Designed and applied a rapid-sourcing platform for acceleration support
- Conceptualized, organized, and hosted a series of capacity-strengthening bootcamps
Innovators—global and local entrepreneurs, academics, nongovernmental organizations, businesses, and others—offer new ideas, approaches, and tools that provide scalable, impactful, and sustainable solutions. Catalyst consists of multiple innovator competitions that target specific development priorities . Among these is the JuntosEsMejor (BetterTogether) innovation challenge, which addressed the regional migration crisis resulting from the political and economic turmoil in Venezuela. The Development Innovation Ventures program serves as one of the largest publicly funded, global social impact investing funds. Finally, the MujerProspera (WomanProsper) Challenge advances gender equality in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Under the MujerProspera Challenge, Catalyst issued nine fixed amount awards, ranging from $180,000 to $500,000, with a total value of $3.15 million.
Kaizen provided a grants manager and acceleration adviser on the Catalyst project. The grants manager oversaw and supported a portfolio of innovators on the JuntosEsMejor and MujerProspera Challenges. The acceleration advisor managed and facilitated services provided to innovators through Catalyst’s rapid procurement mechanism, which involved evaluating and maintaining a pool of approved vendors across a range of operational and technical support areas. Kaizen, through its acceleration adviser, worked collaboratively with innovators to understand their needs and match them with assistance. Additionally, Kaizen facilitated a series of bootcamps where innovators-built skills in areas such as winning and implementing USAID funds, communications and social media, and monitoring, evaluation, and learning.
At a glance
Client
Status
Past
Location
USA
Services
Innovation and entrepreneurship, economic growth
