Impact of TNO Innovation for Development in 2020

Wrap up of the year

Thanks to you and despite the crisis, we stayed focused on our mission to improve the lives of 1 million people in low- and middle income countries by inclusive innovation. In this wrap up of the year, the TNO Innovation for Development program looks at the reach of our inclusive innovations and future endeavors.

Outputs and impacts

Together with our partners we reached almost 300.000 low-income individuals and we contributed to SDG 3 – Good Health and wellbeing, SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth, SDG 9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure and SDG 12 – Responsible consumption and production. Find below some highlights of our achievements.

Cool bricks – Replacing cement

TNO developed alternative binders for bricks and blocks in housing in Senegal and Malawi. With Terrastone, GiZ, Oskam, LEVS, RVO and Elementerre we managed to replace cement by local resources, which makes the production more sustainable, affordable, efficient and of high quality.

• Cementless, 100% locally made blocks for energy efficient housing;
• Watch this movie from our partner Elementerre;

Flying Food – Crickets for food and employment

Together with Protifarm, NGN, WUR, ICCO, RVO and Nutrifarm we scaled the cricket business for human consumption to Rwanda. We conducted a market study, designed a medium scale cricket farm with off-grid climate control solutions and attracted private sector to start supply and demand of crickets.

• Positive results of market study Flying Food in Rwanda
• Movie: Crickets for food and jobs in Africa

Health of mother and child

The innovative backpack for midwives to test the health of pregnant women is further developed and we combined it with group care. It was applied in Indonesia, Ghana and Suriname with our partners Simavi, Presbyterian Health Services and Grand Challenges Canada. Guidelines on growth charts and development scores were spread with the Gates Foundation.

• Read about the impact of the first 1000 days and watch the movie on Check2gether
• Evidence-based interventions to strengthen mental health of children

Thank you for your commitment to work with us, a commitment that enables us to contribute to making the world a better place. We wish you and your family a happy and healthy 2021!

Future endeavors

We look forward to continuing our efforts on inclusive innovation in low and middle income countries and doing that collaboratively with all of you. We will further scale up our innovations in construction, the protein transition and mother and child care. We are still looking for entrepreneurs who will launch these innovations in their local markets and investors who can financially support those innovators.

Beside the running trajectories, we are working on digitalization of food chains, circular economy action plans, on valorization of waste plastics, on application of biodegradable plastics, on renewable energy technologies and on collaborative business models. All these system innovations will boost entrepreneurship, employability, income generation for youth and women and it will create access to basic services for low-income groups.

Let's make 2021 a great year together!