How Can Innovation Hubs Leverage Techniques to Create Equitable and Inclusive Programs?
The Local Context
Innovation hubs in Ghana are at the forefront of community development and social impact through their work supporting entrepreneurs and the growth of innovative ideas and technologies that address local pain points. In turn, many innovation hubs offer ongoing entrepreneurship training, mentorship, access to funding, and technical skills training to fill the knowledge gaps identified in earlier research and raise the bar for the Ghanaian entrepreneurship ecosystem to work towards meeting international standards.
Development and governmental organisations in Ghana are directing more resources to support women and individuals from rural and underrepresented groups but many organisations are unable to meet recruitment and completion targets in the collaborative programs. The Gender Awareness Program addresses the challenges that innovation hubs face that limit their capacity to meet the targets.
How an Innovation Hub Can Contribute to Ecosystem Development
iSpace Foundation launched the Gender Awareness Program in December 2021 to give innovation hubs a combination of tools, training, mentorship, and funding to build their management structures and to develop and implement programs that integrate gender, equity, diversity, and inclusion considerations. The program supported 63 individuals, which included 2 hub staff and 1 community member from 22 hubs from across Ghana, in the first cohort and 18 out of the 22 hubs received financial support. During the first cohort, iSpace also collaborated with the program participants, specialists, and representatives from organisations with mandates to support entrepreneurship and development in Ghana including RISA, UKAID, Ghana Hubs Network, Crossroads International, Ghana Startup Network, Kekeli Foundation, and Captua to design a GEDI charter with supplementary resources designed during the program.
Understanding the Process of Building Capacity in GEDI
To combat these issues, innovation hubs can prioritize gender, equity, diversity, and inclusion within their management structures and program designs by following these fundamental principles:
- Focus on creating policies and practices
This will give organizations the ability to establish a baseline and monitor changes over time to adapt their methodology and techniques. Organisations will also be able to analyze their practices, policies, and information collected by their hubs and gain an understanding of policies, practices, and metrics that support increased diversity and inclusion.
2. Develop a business case to drive the strategy
Organizations can define the need and methodology for the strategy by focusing on the business case that includes gender, equity, diversity, and inclusion to learn about how to define and create safe spaces, discuss the effects on employee satisfaction and retention, and the effects on the bottom line to increase value for money.
3. Prioritize excellence and innovation to drive the strategy
By raising the importance of excellence and innovation, organizations can promote gender, equity, diversity, and inclusion while exploring tools and resources that are best fits for their development.
Undergoing change to prioritize GEDI within innovation hubs does not happen overnight but staff can take steps to grow from unawareness to promoting GEDI as seen in the DiversifyNow Diversity Process seen below.
Local Examples of GEDI-Focused Programs
There is a gap between researchers and practitioners in Ghana, including innovation hubs. The Gender Awareness Program provided resources for innovation hubs to perform research then design and implement programs in their communities that included women, people living with disabilities, and people from vulnerable groups and marginalized communities. iSpace conducted verification visits to a select number of participating innovation hubs for the projects they designed and implemented and created six case studies to raise awareness and promote GEDI-related programs designed by innovation hubs in Ghana.
These case studies were developed to highlight and promote the projects performed by innovation hubs across Ghana during the Gender Awareness Program that started in January 2022.
GEDI should not be an after thought in the growth of an organisation but rather made to be part of the foundation blocks of the organisation. This will help in streamlining products, services, and general engagement with your target market.
The objective of GAP is to raise organisational awareness and highlight the benefits of GEDI. The program seeks to provide resources and support to organisations and connect them to local experts.
Case studies developed during the Gender Awareness Program can be accessed by visiting https://bit.ly/GAP_CasesCharter.
