What is demand-driven innovation?

“As the populations moves toward the 9 billion mark and the Earth’s climate becomes increasingly variable, we face growing social and environmental problems,” is the opening text for Demand-Driven.org, a new site for the international development community. “Solving these problems entails understanding what low-income communities need and want. Developing solutions to tackle these global problems requires thinking early about how the product or service will get to market, how the private sector might get involved, and how to leverage diferent sources of finance.”

With support from the World Bank, GATD, Catapult Design and Alana Conner Communications kicked off development of Demand-Driven.org as a resource for innovators tackling challenges in low-income communities. Intended for funders, policymakers and practitioners, the new site serves as a prompt for discussion around six areas affecting these innovators: customers, products & services, marketing, commercialization, financing and metrics.

Using stories from on-the-ground innovators interviewed in Rwanda, Kenya, India, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, the UK and beyond, the site illustrates how organizations and individuals successfully (and sometimes not so successfully) overcame the roadblocks in the design and delivery of new products and new services.

We welcome your input, your stories, and ideas for additional prompts. Tell us what resources the industry needs to be successful at instigating change. We’d love to hear from you!