The Social Innovation Lab for Human Flourishing empowers organisations—leaders, activists, and employees across sectors—with tools and frameworks to drive real-world innovation for human flourishing. Our work has direct impact, promoting the personal growth and well-being of individuals while advancing both organisational and social change. Below we give examples of projects where we share, implement, and improve novel research insights for practical use and social impact, together with our local ecosystem partners.
Human flourishing is about living a good and meaningful life, of personal growth towards a fully-functioning human being, with positive relationships, and a sense of purpose.
India: Human Flourishing of Teachers and Children
In this project, we leverage our research insights to train and support the leaders and staff of Gyan Shala, a large NGO educating 25,000 children in urban informal settlements across Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Together, we’re designing a training program aimed at empowering over 1,000 female teachers to create more meaningful work, in turn enhancing their impact on learners. We are testing the effectiveness of the new training through a Randomized Control Trial, measuring outcomes based on what teachers and learners have reason to value in their specific context.This is a new approach to implement India’s New Education Policy (NEP-2020).
Financial support: Knowledge and Exchange (KEI) Large Bid Fund (LSE)
Kenya: Workshops on Self-Organised Entrepreneurial Flourishing in Informal Settlements
Research shows that top-down support for entrepreneurs in African informal settlements, through formal training and funding, typically results in only incremental impact. We conducted a series of workshops with entrepreneurs in informal settlements and NGO leaders (Nairobits), as well as academics (Strathmore Business School) in Nairobi to disseminate and improve knowledge on how entrepreneurs in urban informal settlements can self-organise to enhance their human flourishing. These workshops focus on fostering entrepreneurial innovation, growth, personal empowerment and supporting novice entrepreneurs to drive broader human flourishing.
Financial support: NWO/WOTRO (Dutch National Science Foundation/Ministry of International Development) innovation and impact funds
South Africa. Workshops with Local Education Ecosystem Actors to Facilitate Teacher and Learner Flourishing in Townships and Rural Areas.
In response to the critical challenges in township and rural education – where nearly 80% of learners cannot read for meaning by grade 4 and 50% drop out before grade 12, severely limiting their personal and professional development—we organised a series of workshops, together with the Bertha Centre of Social Innovation (University of Cape Town). We trained local ecosystem actors in education in the Western Cape to design, bottom-up, organizational innovations that enable teachers and other staff at their institutions, leveraging their local knowledge, agency, and meaning making in ways that promote learner flourishing and the knowledge and skills needed to navigate a complex and changing world. Follow-up workshops aim to strengthen local ecosystems for bottom-up, sustained innovation and impact in education.
Financial support: Knowledge and Exchange (KEI) Large Bid Fund (LSE)
South Africa. Workshops with Companies for Sustainable Strategic Innovation and Stakeholder Flourishing.
Companies in Sub-Saharan Africa face distinct challenges, but also opportunities, for socially and environmentally sustainable strategies, beyond traditional shareholder value models. Together with colleagues of the Graduate School of Business (University of Cape Town), we organise workshops engaging leaders from large South African companies to disseminate, discuss, and improve new, evidence-based insights and approaches for sustainable strategic innovation. The goal is to jointly learn better how to successfully achieve sustainable strategic innovation, transcending restrictive traditional business models, and to enhance the human flourishing of key stakeholders.
Financial support: Knowledge and Exchange (KEI) Large Bid Fund (LSE)