Convergent innovation for sustainable economic growth and affordable universal health care: innovating the way we innovate

Abstract

This paper introduces convergent innovation (CI) as a form of meta-innovation-an innovation in the way we innovate. CI integrates human and economic development outcomes, through behavioral and ecosystem transformation at scale, for sustainable prosperity and affordable universal health care within a whole-of-society paradigm. To this end, CI combines technological and social innovation (including organizational, social process, financial, and institutional), with a special focus on the most underserved populations. CI takes a modular approach that convenes around roadmaps for real world change-a portfolio of loosely coupled complementary partners from the business community, civil society, and the public sector. Roadmaps serve as collaborative platforms for focused, achievable, and time-bound projects to provide scalable, sustainable, and resilient solutions to complex challenges, with benefits both to participating partners and to society. In this paper, we first briefly review the literature on technological innovation that sets the foundations of CI and motivates its feasibility. We then describe CI, its building blocks, and enabling conditions for deployment and scaling up, illustrating its operational forms through examples of existing CI-sensitive innovation.

Innovación y Emprendimiento, y su relación con el Desarrollo Local del Pueblo de Salinas de Guaranda, Provincia Bolívar, Ecuador

“…En este contexto donde la innovación es alimentada por el conocimiento aplicado localmente, los emprendedores pueden convertir este conocimiento en innovación y contribuir al crecimiento local y regional, como sugiere la teoría del desborde de conocimiento (Capelo y Lenzi, 2016). Por otra parte, la innovación es ampliamente considerada como un motor clave del crecimiento económico, aunque las dimensiones sociales y culturales a menudo se descuidan; por aquello la innovación convergente combina la innovación tecnológica y social, con un enfoque especial en las poblaciones más desatendidas (Dargan y Shucksmith, 2008;Dube et al, 2014).Así Moreno et al, (2011), indican que el capital humano, es decir, el conjunto de conocimientos, destrezas y habilidades que tienen y utilizan los trabajadores influye positivamente en la innovación.…”

Convergence as public health innovation: a case for tobacco control

“…14 Convergent approaches for tobacco control innovations may be particularly important among disadvantaged socioeconomic groups where health inequities are greatest and most acute. 14,18 Globally, there is an "inverse gradient" 19 of tobacco control success, where the tobacco reductions in wealthy environments contrast with increases in tobacco use and tobacco-related illness in poorer environments. 19 While issues pertaining to unemployment, food insecurity, and environmental stressors are common barriers, low socio-economic status groups are not homogeneous.…”

Farmers’ tales: adaptive strategies for agricultural commercialisation and food and nutrition security in Myanmar

“…Analysing these cases from a life-course perspective permits to explore how coping mechanisms develop during individuals' lives (Wethington & Johnson-Askew, 2009 Nicholls et al, 2016). Social innovation is a complex phenomenon which span from grassroots solutions to pressing societal issues, to novel services and products originating from innovative multi-stakeholders' partnerships, to more systemic innovation involving organisational and institutional frameworks (van der Have & Rubalcaba, 2016 Examples of social innovation agriculture-oriented initiative which lead to positive food security and nutritional outcomes are present in the literature (Pant & Hambly Odame, 2009;Dubé et al, 2014).…”