Page 127 - The Resilient Organization

114 Part Three: Step 2. Building Resilience into the Organization

Tough conditions require innovative solutions and sisu, elements that
Innovation Democracy seeks to bolster. I believe that resource-driven think-
ing has so dominated development aid that it has clouded considerations of
situations in which, paradoxically, scarce resources (precisely because they
2
are scarce) are effective, potentially leading to breakthrough innovations
and lasting alleviation of poverty. I suggest supporting emergent local inno-
vation and entrepreneurship as a means to help Afghanis improve their liv-
ing standards and develop a more stable society. Let us start by identifying
the portfolio of ideas and activities that Afghan people are passionate
about. Let us fund these ventures first. Top-down financial aid reduces if
not voids the incentives to find innovative solutions to overcoming the
underlying, true resource constraints. It also builds resource dependency (if
you think power corrupts in government, try free money!)—an enemy of
resilient development and of sisu. The issue is important beyond develop-
ment: similarly in the climate negotiations, billions of dollars of climate aid
are now committed by governments. If we do not know how to spend
monies to reduce poverty, how do we quickly learn to transfer monies
wisely across nations to slow down global warming?

RESILIENCE IN ACTION: INNOVATION DEMOCRACY, INC.

Innovation Democracy, a California nonprofit organization, founded by
Sari Stenfors, Jaak Treiman, and Liisa Välikangas, supports local innova-
tion in countries important to world stability. With a determined Afghan
woman, Wagma Mohmand, the organization has operated in Afghanistan
for five years, teaching the students of Kabul University’s Economics
Department innovative entrepreneurship. More than a course, the program
is an engagement with the students to help them develop means to support
themselves and their families in an extremely difficult, resource-poor, and
occasionally hostile environment. Upon its founding in 2005, the vision of
Innovation Democracy, Inc., was formulated as follows:

Yes, we aspire to save the world. Not by big capital expenditures or
large-scale aid. By taking small actions and turning them into signifi-
cant beginnings.