Since IDIN was created over four years ago, we’ve asked our Network members, “What do you most hope to accomplish in the year after attending IDDS?”

Overwhelmingly, the answer is, “I want to share what I’ve learned with others.” And not only are our Network members expressing the desire to teach what they have learned about co-creation, design, and development to others – they’re taking action.

In a survey of participants from four International Development Design Summits (IDDS Tanzania, Zero Waste, Aarogyam, and D’Kar), over two-thirds of respondents said they taught what they had learned about design, co-creation, and international development to others in the year after attending the summit. In fact, it was the most commonly reported outcome in the survey.

Since the summit ended, which of the following have you done? 

Survey of participants from IDDS Tanzania, Zero Waste, Aarogyam, and D’Kar, n=74

It’s one of many powerful outcomes of our program, and we’ve been begun to explore a variety of ways to support Network members who wish to take IDDS curriculum back to their own communities.

What drives IDIN Network members to teach others about design and innovation? What inspires them? And how are they incorporating this desire to teach in their everyday lives?

Although there are many ways in which our Network members teach what they have learned to others, most of these activities fall into four categories: founding or working at an innovation center, adapting the curriculum for a university class or program, adapting the curriculum for shorter design trainings, or planning their own design summit.

Innovation Centers

About 20 IDIN Network members are what we consider “innovation center champions,” meaning they have either founded an innovation center or are a key player or staff person at one of the innovation centers we actively support. Each of our partner centers is unique, and its offerings a reflection of its founders and the community it serves. These centers adapt our curriculum and create their own to meet the needs of those communities, whether they are exposing young people to STEM education or teaching coding and app development skills to adults.

"I have launched the first-ever innovation center in a prison. It’s geared toward equipping inmates with information technology skills and helping them design and create in cyberspace." — Aggrey Mokaya, Change Hub Kenya  

To explore some of the unique approaches of IDIN innovation center champions, we recommend you check out the following blogs:

• On building community confidence and resilience: We Can Build Fantastic Things: Innovation Center in Brazil Sparks Belief in Local Community
• On inspiring young people through hands-on education: The Future of Innovation: How IDIN-Supported Innovation Centers Are Tapping the Potential of Young Makers in Tanzania, Brazil and Uganda
• On sparking creativity through electronics curriculum: Twende Sparks Curiosity & Creativity through New Electronics Curriculum

University Programs & Trainings

At least eight IDIN Network members have created new university level courses or programs in design for development, inspired by the IDDS curriculum. These classes incorporate concepts like project-based learning, co-creation, rapid prototyping, empathy, and community engagement. Others have incorporated IDDS-inspired curriculum into existing university programs.

“I have joined Purdue University as Managing Director of Global Engineering Programs, and direct our Innovation for International Development (I2D) Lab. Consciously and unconsciously, I apply and teach the skills and perspectives I honed at IDDS with hundreds of faculty and students across dozens of projects.” — Alex Moseson, USA

To learn more about how IDIN Network members have developed their own classes inspired by our approach, we recommend reading:

• Sustainable Homes, Sustainable Partnerships: Building a Design for Development Ecosystem in Guatemala
• IDIN Network Member Designs & Launches New Course in Peru Based on Experience at IDDS

International Development Design Summits  

Rewarding. Transformative. Challenging. Life changing. As much as we hear this kind of feedback from IDDS participants, we hear it almost as often from IDDS organizers themselves. Over 200 IDIN Network members have helped organize 18 International Development Design Summits over the past ten years. Organizers play a variety of roles at the summit including adapting and delivering curriculum, engaging communities, identifying projects, recruiting participants, managing logistics, and planning for summit follow-up.

In reflecting on his time as an organizer at IDDS Zero Waste in Colombia, Luis Fernando Marmolejo shared what was most memorable about the experience, here translated from original Spanish: 

"Interacting with the whole team, collectively building knowledge, meeting teachers with different knowledge and experiences, but a common purpose: giving the best of themselves to improve the quality of life in vulnerable communities." — Luis Fernando Marmolejo, Colombia; organizer for IDDS Zero Waste & IDDS Educación

To learn more about the IDDS organizer experience, we recommend reading:

• IDIN's Colombia Chapter Plans for New Innovation Center, Community Design Trainings, and IDDS 2016
• A Conversation with Amna Batool, Organizer for the First-Ever International Development Design Summit Organized in Pakistan
• IDDS on Three Continents: A Conversation with This Year’s Summit Organizers

Community Design Trainings

IDIN has supported 18 Network members to conduct design trainings outside of the university classroom. Participants in these trainings range from school children to private sector employees to refugees. Each training tackles different development themes such as water shortage, menstrual hygiene or clean energy, while teaching hands-on design skills, the design process, and rapid iteration methods.

"I've met some IDDS alumni from Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo and did a workshop about design thinking for 12 teachers from different schools from Rio to co-create with them solutions to encourage young children to read books in a regular basis.” — Aline Horta Guinle, Brazil

To learn more about our Network member’s design trainings, we recommend reading:

• IDIN Announces First Class of Workshop and Training Grantees
• Finding Their Life’s Work in Design Education for the Greater Good: Perspectives from Kenya, Japan, and Tanzania
• Applying Human-Centered Design to Refugee Challenges in Dadaab, Kenya