Wintersemester 2012 / 2013 

Executive Summary 

About the Partner 

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the United Nations’ global development network which helps developing countries to attract and use aid effectively. 

Project goal 

The aim of the project was to help UNDP to create and introduce an in- novation toolkit which will be called UN ID Book in the following report. More specifically, the goal was targeted by giving recommendations on the toolkit content as well as on the design and on the implementation of the toolkit within the structures of UNDP. 

Methodology 

First of all, an analysis of the current state was conducted in order to better understand the UNDP’s organizational structure, its project guide- lines and its previously faced problems. For the purpose of the problem identification interviews with project managers in Bratislava were conducted and a cause-effect analysis was completed. The main finding of the analysis was that UNDP projects highly depend on the support of their stakeholders. For the stakeholders fast and reliable solutions are therefore necessary. Other challenges identified were the insufficient knowledge and time pressure of the project managers as well as the inefficiency of UNDP-internal processes and limitedness of financial resources. 

In a next step, innovation tools which would best address those above- mentioned problems were sought. In order to find those innovation tools, which would suit best to be applied in UNDP projects, approximately 50 books and articles dealing with innovation methods were screened. In the end, 17 innovation tools were selected, including tools which can be used to identify and solve problems, to generate ideas, to share knowledge and to foster user-driven innovation. 

Results 

All of the selected tools have then been adjusted to the specific needs of UNDP. This means that all the tools were tailored to the challenges and limitations of UNDP. For example, lead user methods were simplified so that they could be used without investing huge amounts of time and money. The explanations of the tools were kept clear and simple while proper explications on how to apply them were still provided. For each tool the feasibility was determined on basis of 6 dimensions: the time needed, the people needed, the application frequency, the complexity of the tool, the financial resources and other resources needed. The three most important dimensions (financial resources, complexity and time) were then visualized in the form of Harvey Balls. Finally, a short summary of each tool was provided and an example for a potential application area of UNDP was given. 

In a last step, recommendations on the design of the toolkit and on the implementation of the toolkit were offered. Concerning the design of the toolkit, three innovative ideas were presented and explained. The selected ideas greatly differ in their required resources and their complexity. Finally, the most effective strategies for the implementation of the toolkit were determined and recommendations on the UNDP-internal communication of the toolkit were provided.  

Cooperation Partner

• UNDP Bratislava Regional Centre
  Grosslingova 35
  811 09 Bratislava
  Slovak Republic
  T +421-2-59337-111
  E registry.sk@undp.org

• Contact Person
  Knowledge and Innovation
  Giulio Quaggiotto
  Team Leader
  T +421-2-59337 276
  E giulio.quaggiotto@undp.org 

Student Team

• Christoph Fischer
  Manuel Wildtgrube
  Marius Höbenstreit
  Julia Ebner