This week’s readings relate to
identifying critical roles of government in social innovations. It became
evident through a series of articles that government does have a critical role
in the development, implementation and impact of social innovation initiatives.
The role of government can vary from financial capital, human capital,
“funder-in-chief”, or simply creating a space for social innovation to
flourish.
In the article “To Beat Back
Poverty, Pay the Poor,” the author identified government as the principle
provider for the social innovation of conditional cash transfer grants. The of
concept conditional cash transfer programs are not new to public policy and
poverty alleviation, but the ways in which they have been used in recent years
has shown innovation. It shows how the
concept of human centered design is not limited only to products and private
firms. It shows how government’s and its agencies can act as social innovators
in itself. The Program in Brazil has shown how Human Centered Designed (HCD) created
through a government program can change the social impact of entire demographic
in a country. The program fits the context of HCD perfectly. The program
generated solutions to problems and created opportunities, through the act of
creating a new outcome, where the program is driven by the needs, desires, and
context for whom it was designed[1]. Poverty in Brazil has fell from 22 percent to
7 percent between 2003-2009[2]. The
people in low-income areas need money, that why they are deemed to be in a
low-income areas. The programs provide money to people with the condition that
they invest in themselves. It’s the same concept that most low, middle, and
high incomes families use. They invest in time, money, space, and everything
else in themselves and their children. The only exception is that low-income
families can do it even more now. The program looks at the needs and desires of
people in the position in which they are placed in society, and gives them a new
solution to their problem.
This case is a prime example of what
social innovation is about. Its about the ability of people, agencies,
corporations or entitles to address problems that have been gorging society by
creating new ideas that impact societies problems, which impact everyone. It is
false to think that a corporation or any entity can exist without society or
even further peaceful society. I
challenge those that oppose the idea of human centered ideology to think of a
company or government that can operate with no citizens or customers. It is
apparent that social innovation needs a space in society where it can flourish
and grow as a field and practice. Government can play a major role in creating
the space and capacity for social innovation, especially in today’s time. So,
the question for the reader is where does government and social innovation go
from here?
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