This is the report of a 3-day "Innovation Lab" that brought together over 50 senior civil servants, businesspeople, academics, donors, and leaders of non-governmental, community-based, and faith-based organizations from across South Africa to development approaches to the problems of orphaned and vulnerable children (OVC) in South Africa.
The Innovation Lab was not a stand-alone event. It was the launch event for an ongoing program to establish a leadership and innovation network for stakeholders in the OVC field.
The results of the Lab include nine ideas for initiatives described in the report:
- Organizing the Children's Sector
- Self-Sufficiency/Exit Strategy
- OVC Donor Network
- Uneven Distribution of Resources for Children and Families
- Database Project
- Capacity Building
- Local Government
- Scaling Up
- Accountability - Mechanisms to Hold Civil Society Accountable.
Equally important to the initiatives that came out were the building of strong relationships, the sense of renewal for people working in a very stressful field, the shift in power dynamics, and the strengthened commitment to joint action.
This project is a joint effort of Convene Venture Philanthropy, Synergos and Reos Social Innovation, in collaboration with the government of South Africa.