October 2018

Grand Challenges Annual Meeting Highlights

This month was the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting in Berlin, which included speakers such as Bill Gates, Dr.Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, and Angela Merkel. CII co-hosted the opening innovation track session called “Moving from Lab to Market: You’ve got your idea or your prototype but not sure about what comes next?”. Several of USAID's global health grand challenge partners were featured throughout the event for their work to develop, test and scale up innovations, including Kinnos’ colorized powdered additive for improved decontamination, Shift Labs' battery powered infusion monitor DripAssist, and the NEST360 package of life-saving newborn technologies developed by Rice University.

New Human-centered Design Mechanism: EngageDesign

CII is happy to announce a new human-centered design partnership with Lunar, Veryday, Matchboxology, PATH and McKinsey Digital Labs. These partners bring impressive expertise across the intersection of design and global health. Lunar, McKinsey Digital Labs, and Veryday are design studios within McKinsey&Company, and together constitute one of the largest design firms globally. Matchboxology is Africa's first design firm and has more than a decade of public health and development experience. Human-centered design is a methodology that places people and other critical stakeholders at the center of the design and implementation process. It can increase impact and complement existing programs and partners through accelerating human-centered innovation. To learn more about the value of design in global health, visit the Design for Health website at www.designforhealth.org.

SOCAP 2018: Pathways to Scale

Last week was the annual SOCAP (Social Capital Markets) conference, which convenes over 3,000 impact investors, entrepreneurs and innovative cross-sector practitioners dedicated to increasing the flow of capital toward social good. CII hosted a workshop called “The Path to Scaling: Watch your Step,” that discussed the nuanced needs, challenges, gaps and successes for supporting early-to-mid-stage innovators and entrepreneurs.

Accelerating Innovation: Focusing on People

CII Acting Director David Milestone spoke at “Design with the 90%,” an event organized by the Cooper Hewitt Museum at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Discovery Center. The event focused on the role of human-centered design and how to advance its appropriate and effective use to improve global health. David was joined by Tracy Johnson, Senior Program Officer from the Gates Foundation, to discuss the recently launched Design for Health resource and community of practice.