Evaluation of UNHCR’s Innovation Fund

The UNHCR Innovation Fund, launched in 2016, aims to provide funding, support for experimentation and mentorship in order to nurture innovation and adaptability within UNHCR. The Innovation Fund does this by supporting small teams of UNHCR staff to pilot early-stage, novel projects that fall outside the scope of normal UNHCR operations through access to social and financial capital. An initial three-year programme, funded by the IKEA Foundation, provided $3 million in innovation funding of which $1.2 million was used to fund 17 Innovation Fund projects across 13 country operations.1 After the IKEA Foundation funding finished at the end of 2016, the Government of Belgium funded a second round of the Innovation Fund. The second round incorporated a number of modifications from the first with a narrower scope, and ran for just over one year from December 2018 to January 2020. A total of 109 applications were received from UNHCR teams worldwide and 19 projects were selected for funding. The 34 projects that were awarded grants had many diverse achievements including winning prizes, generating media interest, and responding to COVID-19.

This evaluation explores the extent to which the design and implementation of the Innovation Fund allowed the fund to achieve its overarching objectives and to support successful implementation of grantee projects. The evaluation was commissioned:

* to assess which external and internal factors, including the Innovation Fund’s design and input of resources, propel or hinder its success;

* to review the extent to which the Innovation Fund is aligned with UNHCR’s Strategic Directions and policy; and

* to make recommendations about how the Innovation Fund’s approach and design can be improved for the next iteration.