Since the Covid-19 pandemic hit, innovators around the world have developed thousands of novel solutions and practical approaches to this unprecedented global health challenge. About one-fifth of those innovations have come from low- and middle-income countries across sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Latin America, according to our analysis of WHO data, and they work to address the needs of poor, marginalized, or excluded communities at the so-called bottom of the pyramid.
How Low and Middle-Income Countries Are Innovating to Combat Covid
Seven lessons for innovators everywhere.
June 09, 2021
Workers make portable AgVa ventilators during the lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus on April 16, 2020 in Noida, India.
Sunil Ghosh/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
Summary.
One-fifth of the innovative solutions to fight the Covid-19 pandemic have emerged from low and middle-income countries, and these responses offer promising insights for how we think about, manage, and enable innovation. As the international community now faces the historic challenge of vaccinating the world, more attention and resources must be directed to the innovators who are developing technically novel, contextually relevant, and socially inclusive alternatives to mainstream innovation management practices.