About Us

What we are


IdeasUnbound is an innovation hub within the development sector, on the lines of R&D setups in the science and technology space. Our belief is that a dedicated environment fostering innovation helps in coming up with the ideas of tomorrow and beyond which can disrupt the pace of change based on mainstream thinking within this sector. We envision ourselves at the forefront of thinking in the development space and continuously push the boundaries.

Our experience spans a spectrum of stakeholders in the development sector. We have worked at the grassroots in mobilising communities as well as worked with large civil society organizations in maximizing their impact. Due to our involvement at all levels of execution (donors, grassroots organizations, community institutions), it gives us the advantage of understanding each stakeholder group’s perspectives in terms of programme design and implementation. Our partner organizations can tap into this unique experience of ours to design their programmes effectively and create maximum impact.


Our functions

Function 1: Ideation platform

In this function, we select a socio-economic context and run a three-step process to address key grassroots challenges. For example, we picked the Gond Adivasi areas of Central India as a context to work in. The first step is Research which involves developing a detailed first-hand understanding of the grassroots situation through tools like stakeholder analysis, process flow mapping, etc. This also involves interactions with academia and thematic experts.

The research continuously feeds into the Ideation process which is on-demand and real-time. A rigorous brainstorming process helps quickly distil a wide array of ideas to arrive at one or more disruptive ideas. We assess each idea on a Disruptiveness scale to objectively select the ideas to test on the ground.

As part of the Implement step, we pilot disruptive ideas within the selected context to arrive at a proof of concept. Once these piloted disruptive ideas are proven to be scalable, we collaborate with grassroots organizations and government functions for the scale up. The eventual outcome is for people to be able to make better choices regarding their wellbeing due to their expanded world view.

We believe that the cross-thematic nature of our research and ideation complements the single-thematic approach of mainstream models of development. Eventually, we hope to occupy a niche within the development sector for continued focus on innovation and disruptive thinking.


Function 2: Maximizing impact innovatively

We work with partner organizations to derive tangible outputs, by helping them take improved decisions and present their work to donors/investors with actionable data to back them. This is achieved by developing a Theory of Change (ToC) as a guiding document for the entire organization to work towards a common goal with maximum clarity. The ToC serves as a foundation for developing a Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning framework which details out the progress indicators and study methodologies.

We also offer online role based dashboards for our partners to support in planning & course correction and report on key impact metrics to donors. This is enabled by the use of technology in the form of mobile app based monitoring solutions, which lead to real-time data collection with minimal errors. IdeasUnbound also works with partners on a need basis for services like conducting a third party impact assessment or developing study frameworks. We use the approach of developing indices to give a more comprehensive understanding of change on the ground, which also enables better communication of work to external audiences.


Key elements of our approach

We believe in following a long-term collaborative approach rather than a client-vendor one. Hence, our approach includes the following key elements:

  • We consistently push the boundaries of what can be achieved through the collaboration, by taking a long term perspective and bringing in cutting-edge industry-best practices and tools.
  • We bring in both the macro (Theory of Change, Ecosystem) and micro (KPIs, Indices, Processes) perspectives, especially in the context of decision making.
  • We look to deploy innovative study methodologies and build customized analytical frameworks, allowing for the best set of tools to be used in the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) systems.
  • We look to build internal capacities of the partner organization continuously to ensure sustainability of the transformation and minimal dependence on any outside entity.

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