Innovation Center

The Innovation Center at Un Techo para mi País, created in 2007, transforms social problems affecting families that live in extreme poverty into overall development opportunities (economic, academic and social). We generate instances of co-creation between people in more vulnerable communities, academic world, and both private and public sectors. In this way, products, services and inclusive business models for the elimination of poverty are developed in the 19 countries that our organization has presence today. Thus, we have grown as a “social innovation lab” promoting the development of new contents that could be useful for any slum or poor neighborhood, including the ones in Asia.

Our team of 15 people works focusing on inclusive business models to impact the Base of the Social Pyramid (63% of the world), 4 billion people who earn less than 4 dollars per day. We recognize families in slums as customers of finished goods under a model that breaks away from a culture of dependency of what’s available in the market.

In this way, families that had been excluded from technological development and new businesses are included in the development of new technologies that satisfy the urgent needs at accessible prices. This inclusion opens a door for new solutions and new markets, democratizing globalization’s important advances.

Our core is to encourage all members of our society to use all their creativity and knowledge to contribute solving complex problems in a participatory way with the communities and private actors. We have developed ways of collaboration with institutions such as the Art Center College of Design (Pasadena), Singularity University NASA, Unilever, Microsoft, Masisa, Movistar, Gerdau Aza, Sodimac, Coca-Cola, Jarden, among others. As well as with students from all over our continent.

Our most ambitious goal for the next three years, in a joint project with the Interamerican Development Bank (IDB), is to catalyze at least 3 new products, services or inclusive business, that reach a positive impact on more than 1 million consumers each.