The Humanitarian FabKit project aims at scaling-up (to the humanitarian sector) a rapidly deployable set of resources to enable solution development by and for communities affected by natural and manmade disasters (and conflicts and other forms of violence) and also by humanitarian workers in the field. It includes a micro Fab Lab and also other components (digital platform, infrastructure, etc.) required to build a community enabling environment in humanitarian or development settings.
At maturity, the Humanitarian FabKit is planned to be an affordable (<10K$) and open solution that can be entirely made in a Fab Lab (or similarly equipped space) and can be used and adapted for a variety of innovation communities enabling scenarios, deployable in remote and resource scarce settings.
Read our story about the first 2 months of activity of a Humanitarian FabKit deployed, in Greece in a refugee context, with
Terre des hommes.
As the humanitarian FabKit is specially conceived to address humanitarian needs (education and livelihoods more specifically), topics such as impact become indissociable. For the first proof of concept in Ioannina, Greece, with the NGO Terre des Hommes, the humanitarian FabKit is focusing special attention on female inclusion and is now considering how to assess and measure appropriately the impact of the space in the refugee and local communities.
Read our story and discussion opener about
female inclusion in field-based maker space.
The Humanitarian FabKit is a new concept the GHL is applying to humanitarian assistance, the reason why this session is intended to share experiences and capture good practices that could be localized into a humanitarian scenario related to inclusion, impact and the power of the FabLab network.
1. Introduction (30’)Welcome, introduction to the Global Humanitarian Lab, the Humanitarian FabKit project and the challenges for the working group.
2. Inclusion (60’)What is inclusion? multiple approaches to inclusion are linked to each specific context. What does it mean inclusion in the humanitarian practice? What does it mean inclusion in the setting of a Fab Lab?2.1)
2.1) Inclusion in the humanitarian practice (by Adriana De Oro)
2.2) Inclusion in the context of FabLabs (by Wendy Neale)
2.3) How do we practice inclusion? Wendy will lead the section to discuss examples that will challenge the way we perceive the practice of inclusion in the FabLab space. (Wendy)
2.4) Measuring inclusion: After sharing different approaches to inclusion, the section will conclude with the question: how do we measure it? What are the important elements Managers take into account to show inclusion results? What are the baselines used as well as the tools? (Adriana)
3. Impact (60’)Discussing the meaning of impact for FabLab in different contexts. (moderated by Adriana)
3.1) How do we measure “impact” (of a Fab Lab)? What are the standard practices and how could this be translated into the humanitarian practice?
3.2) Use a data model to show how different participants are measuring impact (by Adriana)
4. Impact networks (60’)What is the role of the networks in reaching the expected impact? How to get connected? This section will explore how networks such as the FabLab community and Humanitarian Makers can interact with the Humanitarian FabKit in order to foster its impact. (moderators: Adriana, Naiomi, & Tomas)
5. Wrap up (30’)A general sharing opportunity to reflect on the session main takeaways and gather interest from participants who would like to contribute further to advance these projects with the GHL.
