The Awards for Brilliant Failures in Development Cooperation (YOU) going this year to a decentralization project in East Africa and a micro-insurance project in Nepal. The prize for the best OS learning moment was awarded last Thursday during Partos Plaza.
The jury prize went to the Save a Child Foundation. After success in India, the organization decided to decentralize more work to the regional office in East Africa as well. However, this led to role mixing, an extra bureaucratic layer and more instead of less costs. The context in East Africa was so different that copying a tried and tested concept from elsewhere backfired. By redefining roles and responsibilities and simplifying the organizational structure, the organization succeeded in decentralization after a year and a half. The audience award went to Karuna Foundation. The foundation initiated a cooperative micro-insurance system in two pilot villages in Nepal. After disappointing results and the lack of contributions from local authorities, Karuna decided to stop supporting the project. However, this painful decision had an unpredictable positive effect on related projects in surrounding villages. There arose more pro-activity from the village leaders and more independence and self-reliance. The example from East Africa underlines the importance of a context-dependent approach, the project in Nepal shows that stopping a project can sometimes be good and can even have positive effects in the long run. The aim of the Brilliant Failures in OS Awards is to promote learning, the innovative strength and transparency, of the OS sector. After all, even in that practice, things sometimes go differently than anticipated. That's okay. As long as people and organizations learn from mistakes. And from wrong choices and assumptions. True learning ability is a sign of strength and entrepreneurial spirit. And it promotes innovation. But that takes courage and an open dialogue – with each other and with the general public. The prize is an initiative of the Institute for Brilliant Failures(ABN/AMRO) and the development organization Spark. Sponsors include the OS industry organization Partos, PSO, Woord en Daad and NCDO. Both the jury winner and the public winner will be rewarded this year with a tailor-made learning trajectory from PSO.
