Community-Led humanitarian Innovation and Resilience: Lessons from the CLIP evaluation

A New Approach to Humanitarian Innovation

As humanitarian crises become increasingly complex and funding become more constrained, there is growing recognition that affected communities themselves are often best positioned to identify solutions to the challenges they face. The Community-Led Innovation Partnership (CLIP), funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), was designed around this principle. Implemented between 2020 and 2026 across Guatemala, Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Sudan, the program supported crisis-affected communities in developing and testing their own innovative solutions to local humanitarian and development challenges.

Through a partnership of global and national organizations, CLIP supported 94 community-led innovations, engaging approximately 3,300 community innovators and contributing to positive changes affecting more than 150,000 people. Rather than promoting externally designed interventions, the program invested in local knowledge, resources, leadership, and problem-solving capacities, enabling communities to take ownership of both the innovation process and its outcomes.

How the Program Was Evaluated

The final evaluation combined a Theory of Change approach with Outcome Harvesting and case study analysis. Through document review, interviews, focus group discussions, field visits, and substantiation workshops, the evaluation team harvested 126 Outcome Statements and examined how the program contributed to change across different contexts. A resilience framework guided the analysis, assessing changes across five domains of community capital: human, social, environmental, physical, and financial resources.

Strengthening Agency and Community Capacity

One of the most significant findings was the program’s contribution to strengthening the capacities, confidence, and agency of both community innovators and broader community members. Through the CLIP, participants acquired technical knowledge, leadership skills, and practical problem-solving abilities. Across countries, many innovators reported a shift from dependency toward greater self-confidence and self-efficacy. Communities increasingly viewed themselves as capable of identifying challenges, mobilizing resources, and developing solutions to local problems.

The program also contributed to broader social and behavioral changes. Communities adopted new practices, became more engaged in collective action, and demonstrated greater willingness to contribute their own time, labor, and resources to community initiatives.

Building More Inclusive and Connected Communities

Beyond skills-building, CLIP fostered important social changes. In many locations, innovations promoted the inclusion of women, youth, older people, and persons with disabilities in community decision-making and leadership. The evaluation found evidence of changing attitudes and social norms, as well as stronger collaboration among community members and between communities and local institutions.

These changes strengthened social capital, which is a critical component of resilience. Communities with stronger relationships, trust, and collective action mechanisms are generally better equipped to respond to future crises and adapt to changing circumstances.

Improving Livelihoods, Services, and Disaster Preparedness

The program’s impact varied across contexts. In Guatemala and South Sudan, where innovations often focused on livelihoods and basic services, communities reported improvements in food security, income generation, access to water, and essential services. In Indonesia and the Philippines, where innovations frequently addressed disaster risk reduction and management, the program strengthened preparedness, increased awareness of risks, and improved communities’ capacity to anticipate and respond to disasters. Importantly, many innovations generated benefits across multiple domains simultaneously, highlighting CLIP's contribution to holistic resilience building.

Community-Led Innovation as a Pathway to Resilience

Perhaps the most important lesson from the evaluation is that community-led innovation can serve as a powerful pathway to resilience. The strongest results emerged when communities were given the autonomy to define their own priorities and when innovations received sustained support over time. Partnerships with local authorities further amplified impact by helping successful innovations gain recognition, access public resources, and become integrated into local plans and policies.

Ultimately, CLIP demonstrates that resilience is not built through infrastructure or services alone. It is also built through local agency, collective action, inclusive leadership, and the confidence of communities to shape their own futures. By investing in these assets, community-led innovation can generate lasting benefits that extend well beyond the scope of individual solutions.

Read the executive summary and evaluation report here.