Bottom-up solutions for sustainable development

Innovation through grassroots initiatives is an essential mechanism for organisations to develop bottom-up solution to sustainable development. Solutions should respond to the local needs and represent values and interests of the communities. In contrast to usual scenarios, grassroots innovation seeks deeper green reforms, an alternative framework of sustainable development. But innovation is to be linked with the community's activities if we want to ensure sustainability.
So, the approach of grassroots innovations is a community-led solution which is a modern concept in development projects in recent times. Time has come to innovate approach to achieve sustainability. Community-based approach may promise new thoughts and practices, but often we have to fight to scale up and explore beyond some little niches. We should focus on obstacles that come up with the best innovations for exploring knowledge and experiences. In principle, sustainable solutions always offer integrated benefits to all classes of people. Therefore, the sustainability objective needs to be satisfied by engaging the grassroots people and prioritise policy-oriented discussions and implementation.
The latest updates on different development projects in Bangladesh include grassroots innovation concept on community empowerment, rural solar energy, solar irrigation, various rural entrepreneurship models, etc.
In the traditional development process, many of our rural entrepreneurship models can be good examples of the concept of grassroots innovations. Even in some cases, these models are in the preliminary stages of implementing grassroots innovations. Aarong, a BRAC social enterprise, shows its potentiality in one of the most successful grassroots innovation projects in Bangladesh. In the process of Aarong business model, income- generating opportunities have been created for thousands of artisans in rural areas of Bangladesh. Roughly an estimated (as of 2015) 65,000 artisans are engaged in supply chain including 800 producer groups for Aarong. They produce and supply various types of handicraft items to nine million customers with a return of US$ 62 million in yearly sales. Product quality and designs are continuously being improved or innovated using the grassroots ideas in extensive operations. The overall Aarong business may go through a sustainable innovation process.
Like other community innovations in BRAC, seed and agro social enterprises have become the country's largest producer of hybrid maize seed and the second largest producer of potato seed. In this process of rural enterprise, researching for innovation is facilitated by 22 production centres including around 7,000 contract farmers who are nurturing their quality seed production countrywide. BRAC's extensive innovations at community level are a continuous process of linking the grassroots needs and the present market values. Briefly, the innovations of BRAC social enterprises are being expanded through 16 economic and social benefitted enterprises - food, health, education, green energy and other retail sectors. As BRAC values are growing rapidly at the community level, its community actions can be further extended sustainably, as one of the leading social enterprise models in the world corresponding to the concept of the grassroots innovations.   
Innovation is very dynamic and challenging in the context of social changes. These changes in society further follow its own cultural trend wrapped up with the community people. Of course, policy elites, political and business leaders influence the innovation process independently in their own interest, but as a vital issue of sustainable development, the challenges can be overcome by expanding the networks among community groups, researchers and activists. We have already been successful with many innovations in some areas of development agenda excluding environmental sustainability and social justice. Therefore, it is now being accepted widely to tune development process in integrated ways of grassroots innovations that may overcome challenges with a mixture of people, ideas and tools.
We understand that the grassroots innovation movements are diverse in operations in different countries with the same vision for sustainability. We should analyse and explain the historical background of particular interest of innovation process as to why every creation defines innovation differently, resulting in a various policies and strategies. However, within our many limitations towards innovation, some pathways can be critically suggested to develop grassroots innovations in the present context of our development -
a) We should create a central online database which can be a country's platform for sharing ideas, videos, pictures and various types of innovations. This database can be facilitated by either a private institution or government body with some translated pages in major languages,
b) We should develop our learning processes around the world. In this process, innovators can perform as teachers among us being professional or non-professional. We should develop our cross culture with innovators in our academic and research institutions. There must be some new ways of acknowledging and recognising knowledge that the community people have, and we have the mentality to accept it from them,
c) We should create social venture funds so that nurturing of new knowledge can be accomplished not only for technological innovations, but also institutional and educational innovations should always be forwarded and
d) Finally, we need to have some lessons on many global innovations from textbooks, journals, magazines or other reports and biography of innovators. We use a large number of products in our daily needs, but we never feel to know something more about this product's background that creates our life and makes our world beautiful!
The writer is Senior Research Associate at BRAC Research and Evaluation Division.
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