GIF 2024 End-Year Reflections: What Did We Learn?

2024 was a year of exploring and testing new approaches. We have taken a step forward to find a better approach to create change easier, faster, and more accessible. When we reflect on our efforts this year, we've gathered 3 reflections to help refine our step forward:

We learned that for most of the things that we did this year, collaboration is the key to achieving the impact that we wanted to create and even more, to create more impact. We learned by collaborating, and we brought a lot of different expertise and support from different backgrounds, regardless of their level of experience, scale, or location.

How does co-creation differ from collaboration?

Co-creation is a step beyond conventional collaboration. It involves actively bringing together stakeholders with diverse expertise and perspectives to design, innovate, and refine solutions in a way that leverages the strengths of each participant. Think of it as match-making with purpose: individuals or groups bring their unique capabilities and combine them, not just to solve existing problems but to innovate and create added value—be it through new ideas or improving existing innovations.

Why does co-creation matter?

Co-creation is more than collaboration; it’s about intentionally designing processes and interactions to bring added value.

With that being said, we refined our CCLab to intentionally craft steps to ensure that added value can happen.

Evolving Our Co-Creation Framework

Last year: We focused on understanding root causes and developing problem-solution and product-market fit. The key aim was to design solutions tailored to the context.

This year: We went further, co-creating with an intentional focus on value addition. Our goal was to ensure solutions not only solved problems but also generated economic benefits. This meant embedding marketability and sustainability into the foundation of the ideas themselves.

How Did We Do It?

A. Engage Diverse Stakeholders

Bring together parties from different backgrounds, sectors, and areas of expertise to ensure you can address the issue holistically. By involving a wide range of perspectives—whether from local communities, technical experts, policymakers, or entrepreneurs—we create solutions that consider all dimensions of the challenge, from practical implementation to long-term impact. We did this in CCE where every consortium is made up of startups, NGO, and/or educational institutions.

B. Developing a Shared Framework

We used tools like the Theory of Change and the Social Business Model Canvas to develop a shared framework consisting of revenue projection, impact, and financial trajectory. By doing so, we enabled changemakers to envision working together to achieve social, economic, and environmental goals. In our CCLab—a space for changemakers to co-create innovation—we leverage these tools to produce innovation, and will continually check it as a monitoring tool during implementation.

C. Organic Match-Making for Stronger Connections

Organic match-making fosters genuine collaboration. Natural connections between participants—when they share complementary goals, values, or expertise—lead to stronger bonds, greater trust, and more effective collaboration. This year, in CCE, we oblige the changemakers to find other changemakers to form a consortium by themselves. We provide consultation, space for them to network, and a platform for all the changemakers' profiles.

Throughout our initiatives, we always try to engage local communities in creating and implementing innovations. We’ve always involved local communities in creating and implementing innovations. But this year, we saw the need to take it further—inviting them to the strategic table. It’s not just about allowing them to get involved, but also an authority to make decisions and shape the direction of innovation.

Why Involve Them Strategically?

True ownership leads to stronger contributions and sustainable growth for the project. But to take on a strategic role, communities need the right capacities—project management, financial literacy, leadership, and problem-solving skills.

How We’re Making It Happen?

Take the Sukla Project; an ongoing project in Besakih, Bali, aiming to build a sustainable waste management system, where we partnered with the local Unit Pengelola Sampah (UPS). Over nearly a year of implementation, we observed:

• The challenge: Gaps in skills, confidence, and mindset between changemakers and UPS workers.
• The opportunity: Positioning UPS as a strategic partner to optimize work and scale efforts beyond Besakih to nearby villages.

Onward, This Is What We Will be Doing Differently:

A. Organizing Capacity-Building Through Booster Workshops

Providing training on areas that need to be enhanced, such as:

• Scale Up Your Market: Strengthened understanding of market dynamics and converting audience to potential off-taker.
• Enhancing & Elevating Local Champion Development: Identifying and engaging the local leaders to be involved in the project.
• Policy & Advocacy Influencing: Equipped changemakers to navigate and influence policy ecosystems if need be.
• Sustainable Financing Strategies: Empowered participants to understand the funding landscape and strategy for sustainable funding.

B. Actively involving the local community in discussions and decision-making

This includes providing them with a seat at project meetings and reporting processes, and also giving them the authority to influence the direction of the project.

At GIF, we believe experimentation is vital to making change faster, easier, and more accessible. By testing and adapting new approaches, we uncover better ways to tackle challenges. As you experiment, you'll soon find out that there are things that are working, not working, or need adjustments. However, this process requires resources—funding, manpower, and expertise—to test, adapt, and iterate toward your goals.

What Does Experimentation Look Like?

In Lake Toba, North Sumatra, the Samosir Mallatam project aimed to reduce waste and prevent food loss. After over a year of testing their innovation, they discovered that relying solely on selling high-value waste wouldn’t cover operational costs.

Recognizing the potential of the area they operate in, Hariarapohan Village—awarded 2nd place in Best Homestay & Public Toilet Category (2023) from the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy—decided to leverage the village’s existing tourism package and integrate eco-tourism activities to create an alternative revenue stream. This includes a visit to the central facility processing food waste and waste management center, as well as activities around sustainability initiatives.