2 NOV 2020 TO 3 NOV 2020
BANGKOK, THAILAND
VIRTUAL

Grassroots innovation is a modality of inclusive innovation that enables affordable, niche-adapted solutions developed by members of informal sector at community level, like farmers, artisans, workers, mechanics, children etc., to address unmet needs or local problems, often unaided by public sector or actors in the formal sector, including firms, science and technological institutions, and non-governmental organisations.

As a bottom-up approach, grassroots innovation converts the ideas and innovations of knowledge-rich but economically poor individuals and communities into viable means of raising income, addressing social needs, and conserving the environment. In a context of growing income disparity and, especially, economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, every effort should be made to promote grassroots innovation.

A variety of policies and strategies of the public sector can serve the emergence, recognition, and diffusion of grassroots innovations. The webinar aims to raise awareness of the significance of grassroots innovations, provide policymakers with suggestions on how to promote grassroots innovations, and exchange the experience of practitioners within and across the national borders.

The Webinar, organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in collaboration with the Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network (GIAN) and the Honey Bee Network, will be hosted online on 2 and 3 November 2020. More information about the Webinar can be found in the programme plan below.

Related Materials

• Tentative programme plan
• Policies and Strategies to Promote Grassroots Innovation Workbook
   

Day 1

Day 2 

Presentations

• Day1-1. Grassroots Innovations pathways for inclusive development, by Anil Gupta
• Day1-2. Entreprenial Journey Sharing, by Prakriti Mainali
• Day1-3. How is the scouting and documentation, by Chetan Patel
• Day1-4. Multi Purpose Processing Machine, by Dharamveer Kamboj
• Day2-1. Policies and Strategies to create an enabling environment for Grassroots Innovations, by Anthony Sales
• Day2-2. Reimagining Inclusive Innovation in post COVID-19 Philippines, by Rex Lor
• Day2-3. a2i Innovate for All - Bangladesh, by Ishtiaque Hussain
• Day2-4. Inclusive Innovation in Viet Nam, by Ida Uusikyla
• Day2-5. Inclusive Technology and Innovation Policies, by Marta Pérez Cusó
• Day2-6. Inclusive Innovation: What we are learning across the region, from people to policy, by Courtney Lawrence