From Learning to Action: Bringing the UN Innovation Toolkit into IFAD’s Country Operations

Reflections from participants: Ahmed Gure & Chiara Marabotto

In line with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)’s continued commitment to strengthening a culture of innovation across the organization, a cohort of IFAD staff was nominated by their divisions to participate in the UN Innovation Toolkit Training of Trainers (ToT) programme, delivered by UNSSC from 6 October to 23 November 2025. This multi-week course brought together colleagues from headquarters and the field, creating a diverse learning community where participants could exchange challenges, reflect on their operational realities, and explore how the Toolkit can be embedded more systematically into daily practice. 

Over the course of seven weeks, the programme combined live sessions, peer learning, coaching opportunities, and hands-on assignments to equip participants with the skills required to facilitate innovation learning activities for others. The goal: to strengthen a network of internal “innovation multipliers” capable of supporting teams across IFAD by leveraging the UN Innovation Toolkit. 

Grounded in practical application, the ToT showed how innovation can become accessible and relevant to IFAD’s operational work - including in challenging contexts such as Somalia. 

Key learnings and tools from the programme 

The training came at a pivotal moment, as having internal facilitators trained in innovation tools and methodologies supports IFAD’s broader efforts to embed innovation more systematically across its operations and strengthen the capabilities of staff who support country programmes.  

A central component of the training was the UN Innovation Toolkit’s S.P.A.C.E. Framework - Strategy, Partnerships, Architecture, Culture and Evaluation - which offers a holistic lens for understanding how innovation operates at system, team, and unit levels. The framework reinforced and clarified that innovation requires enabling conditions: strategic alignment, strong partnerships, flexible structures, a culture of experimentation, and evaluation mechanisms to guide scaling. This framework aligns directly with IFAD’s objective of fostering continuous learning and evidence-based decision-making. 

Participants worked with a wide range of tools, including the Headlines of the Future, and From Pilot to Scale, which were consistently highlighted as accessible, intuitive, and immediately applicable in country-contexts. Moreover, the Innovation Diagnostic survey offered a valuable opportunity for staff to identify what type of innovators they were - individually and collectively - and how to leverage team strengths to deliver “better results, quicker” by adopting a “fail fast and cheap” approach to idea testing (See IFAD innovation labs: reshaping culture through dynamic innovation). 

Participants observed three clear benefits: 

• greater confidence in facilitating innovation discussions, 
• improved clarity in breaking down complex issues, and 
• a shared innovation language that strengthens collaboration across Project Management Units, implementing partners and government counterparts. 

Applying the UN Innovation Toolkit to IFAD country operations: the Somalia case

The UN Innovation Toolkit’s value becomes particularly evident when applied to Somalia’s operational environment, where a fragile context, geographic dispersion and evolving institutional capacity require adaptive, collaborative approaches. This work complements the Somalia Country Strategic Opportunities Programme (COSOP) and its innovation agenda, which guide IFAD’s medium-term priorities in the country and emphasize adaptive, technology-enabled solutions to strengthen rural livelihoods and resilience. 

The Innovation Diagnostic is especially relevant as Somalia prepares to strengthen coordination across Rural Livelihoods Resilience Programme (RLRP), Adaptive Agriculture and Rangeland Rehabilitation Project (A2R2) and other upcoming initiatives. It provides a structured entry point for understanding how teams collaborate, where communication gaps exist and where new processes could reinforce alignment and learning. 

Tools such as the User-Centered Design one and, more specifically, its journey mapping exercise, directly support the development of Community Resilience Plans. By uncovering root causes and understanding the lived experience of farmers, pastoralists and women entrepreneurs, these tools help ensure that interventions are not only relevant but community owned. 

This approach aligns closely with the Somalia Women’s Market Access Open Innovation Challenge. Here, entrepreneurs will use tools from the UN Innovation Toolkit, including Embrace Failure and elements of the From Pilot to Scale and Define a Value Proposition tools - such as assumption testing and rapid prototyping - to refine their solutions and ground them in real users' needs. 

By integrating the learning from the ToT and Toolkit into Somalia’s portfolio, the country team can further strengthen its ability to adapt, learn and collaborate – critical ingredients for delivering meaningful and sustainable results in fragile settings.  

Case example: Somalia Open Innovation Challenge - bootcamp innovation workshop

A concrete opportunity to apply the learning from the ToT emerged through the Somalia Women’s Market Access Innovation Challenge 2025, designed by the Government of Somalia and IFAD. The initiative supports women entrepreneurs across rural Somalia who aim to strengthen their market access and expand their businesses. While women play a central role in Somalia’s agricultural sector, they continue to face multiple constraints – from limited infrastructure and financing to deep-rooted cultural barriers. Addressing these obstacles is essential to unlocking their economic potential and advancing inclusive rural transformation. 

Implemented by the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation (MoAI) through the Agribusiness Department and the Center for Innovation and Agropreneurship Development (CIAD), in collaboration with IFAD’s RLRP and the World Bank’s S-FSRP, the challenge guides ten finalist companies through a structured innovation journey. The methods learned from the UN Innovation Toolkit ToT play an instrumental role in shaping this experience. 

The first stage of the challenge - a Bootcamp for the shortlisted participants - offered an ideal entry point to bring the UN Innovation Toolkit into field-level work. The opening session outlines IFAD’s broader innovation agenda and introduces participants to tools linked to the S.P.A.C.E. pillars. Through a focused Innovation Lab, entrepreneurs will use a selected set of tools to articulate the starting point of their solution, refine the problem they aim to address, and strengthen their business models. 

By integrating these methods into the Innovation Challenge, IFAD ensures that the lessons from the ToT move directly from learning to application, supporting rural entrepreneurs in designing stronger, evidence-based solutions. 

Final reflections

The Training of Trainers programme marked an important step in strengthening capabilities within IFAD’s innovation architecture. Beyond the methodologies introduced, the course underscored the importance of nurturing a culture where experimentation, learning, and creative problem-solving can thrive. Becoming trained facilitators now carries a responsibility: to translate learning into action, support colleagues and partners, and embed innovation meaningfully into project design and delivery. 

Applying the UN Innovation Toolkit in real contexts - such as the Somalia Women’s Market Access Innovation Challenge - shows how these tools support bridging strategic ambition and operational reality. When used with project teams, entrepreneurs or government counterparts, they facilitate build shared understanding, reveal new opportunities, and support the development of more responsive solutions for rural communities. 

The value of UNSSC’s ToT lies not only in individual capacity but in the collective capability it builds across the organization. By equipping staff with common tools and a shared vocabulary for innovation, it strengthens IFAD’s existing efforts to move from isolated to coherent, system-wide practices. 

Ultimately, sustaining IFAD’s commitment to innovation depends on transforming training into action. Embedding the UN Innovation Toolkit across projects and country programmes will continue to enhance the organization’s capacity to respond to complex challenges with agility, creativity, and purpose.