GIZ Innovation Fund

The objective: increased effectiveness through innovation 

Developing, implementing and rolling out innovative ideas for products, services and business models – that’s the objective of the GIZ Innovation Fund. The companywide ideas competition aims at enhancing our services and improving the impact of our projects, for example by using innovative digital applications.  

GIZ issued its first companywide call for ideas for all employees around the world in 2017. Every year the IF tackles a new challenge. The topic for 2020 is: ‘10x more by 2030: What´s your idea to boost the impact and sustainability of our projects?’ 

The method: creating a minimal viable product (MVP) in an accelerator programme 

From the pool of all the submitted ideas, the global GIZ community and a jury select the six ideas with the greatest potential. The selected teams, made up of GIZ intrapreneurs and external partners such as start-ups and NGOs, turn their ideas into a tangible product or service in an accelerator programme. They receive financial support for this process and draw on user-centric methods such as design thinking. 

The awards: prizes for the best products 

After spending half a year on the development process, the six teams present their MVPs to the jury and GIZ’s Management Board, as well as to interested staff and external guests, at a final pitch event. Two winning teams are selected. They receive further methodological support and a budget to implement and roll out their innovative products or services within or outside GIZ. 

The outcome: ideas generate results – an example 

Of the 120 ideas that were submitted in the call for ideas in 2018, team emmunize emerged as one of the six finalists (the challenge was: ‘How can digital data enhance GIZ’s service delivery and increase the impact of our projects?’). Emmunize is a digital vaccination planner. It serves to map where in remote areas of Kenia children need a vaccine and helps medical staff to plan vaccination sessions accordingly. Furthermore, emmunize allows to monitor vaccine cool boxes' temperature and thus optimizes the chill chain. 

Want to know more? 

You can download information on other successful ideas from the GIZ Innovation Fund and a Q&A for external partners here (see below). A dynamic insight into the GIZ Innovation Fund is available on YouTube, and we regularly publish the latest news on LinkedIn.