- Cases
- Netherlands - Syria, Yemen, South Sudan, DRC, Somalia, Ethiopia
Chairing the review of humanitarian innovation proposals for the Dutch Relief Alliance
- Dutch Relief Alliance
- Commissioned by Proportion Global
01 Situation
The Dutch Relief Alliance funds innovation inside its Joint Responses,
in the world’s hardest contexts. Its ambition for the 2022-2023 Open
Call: shift from fund-driven innovation to innovation embedded in the
responses themselves. The recurring problem: proposals arrived as
conventional programmes on short timelines.
02 Assignment
The Alliance appointed Proportion Global’s director to chair the
Review Committee for eight applications from Syria, Yemen, South
Sudan, DRC, Somalia and Ethiopia, leaving every applicant better
equipped, funded or not.
03 Approach
The chair designed a 100-point framework covering challenge
definition, the innovation, target segment, long-term vision,
feasibility, financial proportionality, partnership roles, assumption
testing, accountability and learning. Applicants were assessed twice:
on the written proposal, then a live pitch. Eight independent
reviewers were briefed to apply it consistently, and scores were
collated to expose disagreement rather than average it away.
04 Result
A jury report and recommendations, on which the Alliance based its
funding decision. Every applicant received feedback on where their
proposal was a programme rather than an innovation: narrow the
segment, name the riskiest assumptions, test them.
Project team: Thomas
Enjoyed this case and want to dive deeper? We will connect you with the designers who worked on it.