Learning from local innovations and local innovators is a cost-effective approach to identifying high impact scalable solutions. People and institutions with lived experiences of the circumstances often have the best ideas on how to modify them. Thus Karkhana Global has a strong focus on identifying and actively engaging people, partners and networks on the ground. At the same time, important actors such as funders, universities and research institutions have the skills to gather the insights that help local innovators reflect on their own work, as well as the skills to document and package their work for scale.
The limitations of both projects initiated in the high-income countries and South-to-South collaboration can be overcome by fluid flexible approaches that utilize a blend of both top-down and bottom-up strategies. As an institution with its headquarters and leadership co-located between the Global North and the Global South, Karkhana Global has an important role in facilitating such synergistic collaborations. A flexible institutional culture - embodied in adaptive management, Human Centered practices and multicultural fluidity - allows KG to serve as an
effective facilitator role across the “development divide”.
