WE talk: Susan Long | Approaches to water and energy innovation in the humanitarian context

On 23 September 2018, BORDA WesCA, CEWAS and the Swedish Embassy in Jordan gathered over 150 people at the Zajal Cafe in Amman, Jordan to discuss how to enable innovation in the regional water & energy sectors.

Susan Long is Innovation Advisor at Field Ready. Here, as part of BORDA's WE talk series, she talks about approaches to water and energy innovation in the humanitarian context.

The environmental sectors often lack the capacities and access to innovations that can sustainably ameliorate the severe challenges that are currently facing the MENA region.

New solutions and models of innovation, be it products or services, are needed to tackle water and energy crises and serve a growing market. Developing and bringing to market innovative solutions requires different ways of thinking, investment in research and entrepreneurship, cross-discipline dialogue, and clear mandates to create supportive structures for innovation.

In the MENA region over the past few years, awareness of innovation within the water and energy sector has been slowly developing, and there is a nascent innovation community that has the potential to implement innovative projects and businesses and further encourage the growth and sustainability of the water and energy sectors.