LONDON - October 15, 2020 - (Newswire.com)
Open innovation firm InnoCentive is working with Christian humanitarian organization World Vision on a unique approach to tackling some of the world's most challenging problems: crowdsourcing. The organizations are working to capture solutions that will help improve sanitation and health in some of the poorest areas of the world.
World Vision is focused on helping the most vulnerable children overcome poverty in part by improving their health, safety, education, and nutrition. More than 850 million people in the world's poorest regions lack affordable and effective sanitation. World Vision is seeking unique solutions to this problem from InnoCentive's global network of nearly 500,000 registered expert problem 'solvers', comprised of engineers, PhD students, start-ups, health experts, scientists, and business leaders.
The challenge - Affordable Rural Single-Family Sanitation Solutions - seeks to create sanitation systems and toilets that could be locally manufactured in developing countries. This challenge originates from the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Health) group within World Vision and runs until 12 January, 2021.
"Sanitation is taken for granted, but for many in the developing world, there is no safe, clean, and readily available place to go to the bathroom," said Greg Allgood, Vice President of Water for World Vision United States. "Poor sanitation can lead to disease and death for children and can keep girls from going to school once they reach puberty. Using the InnoCentive platform and network of solvers gives us the opportunity to go beyond traditional ideas. The successful solvers will have used their knowledge to make a tangible and lasting impact on improving the lives of these children."
InnoCentive works with nonprofits all over the world, including GlobalGiving and the Rockefeller Foundation, helping those organisations with a 75%+ success rate in solving challenges. In July 2020 InnoCentive was acquired by UK idea management firm Wazoku, creating the world's most comprehensive and powerful innovation platform and global Solver community.
The challenge will be supported by Innocentive's partner SeaFreight Labs, a consultancy delivering crowdsourcing solutions to the global seafreight community. This involvement has come as a result of the recent SeaFreight Labs decision to join the Pledge 1% movement, in which organizations commit 1 per cent of product/profit/employee time/equity to help an NFP.
"When nonprofits use the InnoCentive crowd it invariably involves overcoming some of the biggest challenges facing the world," said Simon Hill, CEO, Wazoku. "The combined brain power and expertise of our solvers can deliver for World Vision on this challenge, and the problems around affordable and effective sanitation can be resolved."
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For further information about Wazoku, visit https://www.wazoku.com
For further information about InnoCentive, visit https://www.innocentive.com/
For further information about SeaFreight Labs, visit https://www.seafreightlabs.com/
For further information about World Vision, visit https://www.worldvision.org/
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Original Source: InnoCentive Working with World Vision for New Ideas to Improve Sanitation and Health for Children in the Developing World
