OECD Accelerating Impact for Development Impact - Reflections from our Members

On 18th October, seven Members of the Million Lives Club (MLC) were invited to attend the Accelerating Innovation for Development Impact event organised jointly by the OECD Development Co-operation Directorate and the International Development Innovation Alliance. During the day, our MLC innovators had the chance to share their experiences about their journey to successful scale. We took the chance to check in with them following the event and gather their reflections on the day.

During a session dedicated to the Million Lives Club and chaired by Chief Innovation Officer at USAID, Alexis Bonnell, each MLC member had a chance to briefly describe their innovation and impact to a diverse audience made up of participants from public sector, private sector and academic organizations. Then, each innovator joined a table of participants to discuss the challenges and milestones of their scaling journey in more depth. We were pleased to see conversations flowing between all participants, with innovators telling us:

“The format of the workshop was excellent and it is one of the first, out of these types of conferences, that we actually felt was fruitful.” - BRIGHT Products

“The engagements with the participants afterwards were really interesting and for me useful in how the different ‘country missions’ are working with the new concept of social entrepreneurship and innovation.” - Healthy Entrepreneurs

“It was inspiring to share our MLC concept with a global group of innovation experts. Constructive comments and fruitful discussions allowed Aflatoun to sharpen its pitch and explain the concept of innovation at scale in a more concise manner & results oriented manner” - Aflatoun

In all, the event was an excellent platform to highlight the work of the Million Lives Club and some of our Members, as well as providing opportunities for learning on all sides.