The traditional delivery of development assistance makes it difficult for development sector organisations to test new ideas or explore different approaches to poverty reduction. As a result not enough innovation has focused on addressing poverty challenges more effectively.

Kopernik will advance effective solutions by finding, testing, demonstrating and promoting promising ideas. The challenges Kopernik will focus on are those around poverty and its causes which have been globally agreed upon under the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Kopernik will implement a series of projects that are small-scale, low-investment tests of simple ideas. Should these experiments show promise, Kopernik will then implement them on a larger scale - collect evidence and openly share the results with peers. Kopernik will test and implement ideas in real conditions utilising our extensive local networks and field presence. Once ideas are ripe for wider adoption or scale up, Kopernik will spin them off as independent entities and/or engage other players including the government, private sector, and civil society to adopt them on a larger scale.

The solutions Kopernik tests will include technologies and behaviour change nudges. Kopernik will initially be addressing challenges related to Agriculture, Water, Sanitation & Hygiene and Energy.

Key Areas of Investment

• Project development and research
• Solution purchase for testing
• Project implementation and management
• Data collection, monitoring & evaluation
• Report writing for publish