This study aims to provide valuable insights into the process of innovation for development. We selected the “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge”, an initiative of the Gates Foundation, with the objective of creating sustainable sanitation solutions for the 2.5 billion people across the globe who lack access to safe and affordable sanitation. The Naturally Acceptable and Technologically Sustainable (NATS) team at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand was appointed by the Gates Foundation to serve as an innovative fecal sludge management (FSM) hub in Southeast Asia and collaborate with other researchers in the region, as well as with other teams from around the world to develop innovative FSM techniques that can help to solve the world sanitation problem. By gaining insights into how innovators interact with key stakeholders, we can understand the process of innovation for development and the role of innovation brokers in the innovation process, and then suggest a roadmap from the perspective of responsible research and innovation (RRI) to guide innovators, project leaders, industry partners, local government, and policy makers in the process of innovation for development.
Thailand’s 4.0 strategy intends to achieve prosperity, security, and sustainability for its citizens both today and in the distant future. By focusing on the public sector and its civil servants, the government is driving innovation in the public sector by using design thinking (DT) to train government officials to improve public sector innovation (PSI). However, despite studies being conducted on DT and its increasing popularity among scholars, there is still a gap between knowledge and practice with regard to the learning effectiveness of the DT methodology in terms of fostering public sector innovation. Therefore, the authors’ objective for this study was to explore the effectiveness of DT in the Thai PSI and measure the learning effectiveness of the design thinking method (DTM). The researchers conducted action research through a series of workshops and in-class activities involving both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The sample was made up of government officials participating in the Thai Government Innovation Lab (GIL) project in 2020 and 2021. The results on the effectiveness of the program showed that fostering government innovation through DT education led to highly sustainable and highly effective outcomes. This study contributes to the development of public innovation by implementing the DTM as a core methodology for fostering innovation in public organizations.
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