Making Waves

Making Waves

19

A Caribbean Social Innovation Guide

01 . Understanding Social Innovation in the Caribbean

Losing Knowledge and Momentum Over time, cycles of short-term project funding make it difficult to plan ahead, retain talented people and grow lasting impact. When a funding cycle ends, organisations can suffer an erosion of institutional memory. This means that valuable data, knowledge, relationships, trained support staff and community experience can be lost at the end of temporary funding cycles. This can make it harder to build on previous successes, grow and strengthen impact. The Location Challenge Support and resources are not always evenly distributed. Funding opportunities, support organisations, innovation hubs and business services are sometimes concentrated in major cities, making it challenging for innovators in rural communities, border areas and smaller islands to access the support they need. Measuring What Matters Many organisations are doing meaningful work but do not have the time, resources or systems to consistently measure and track their long term impact. Data collection is often driven by donor reporting requirements rather than helping organisations learn what is working, improve their programmes or demonstrate lasting change.

“One-one blow does kill old cow.” Small, repeated actions eventually add up to cause a massive impact. The Social Innovation Insight: Across the Caribbean, small grassroots groups, youth led and women-led charities are constantly being hit by tiny, invisible costs. For example, while a donor grant might cover direct project materials, there are “hidden blows” like the lack of a salary for a female charity leader, the care burden or cost of her child-care or elder care responsibilities while participating in training programmes, the challenge of gaining help with meeting compliance requirements for a grassroots organisation, the lack of property or collateral that disqualifies a young person and many women from many loans and more. Over time, these “blows” add up. Social innovation can look like measures that help ensure that women, youth and grassroots organisations can be sustainably supported and can gain access to finance.