INNOVATE OR DIE

To continue addressing global challenges, multilateral organizations must innovate, or risk being rendered obsolete by more agile actors

- Yana Gevorgyan

Multilateral institutions are under intense pressure nowadays, especially in global development, where startups and tech giants are moving fast to devise digital solutions, and donors are increasingly demanding agility as a condition of continued support.

Organizations whose legitimacy stems largely from their convening power must now adapt to remain relevant and credible. That means shifting from slow, consensus-driven methods to more dynamic frameworks that encourage rapid experimentation.

For example, multilateral bodies like my organization, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), have long focused on ensuring an open and trustworthy data ecosystem. But as private ventures increasingly outpace us, we must develop the capacity to innovate quickly, albeit in a transparent and inclusive manner.

Multilateral organizations like GEO, United Nations agencies, and development banks have struggled to keep up because they were not built for agility. Governance by many member states results in more bureaucracy and risk aversion, as well as funding that is tightly earmarked. Few multilateral initiatives contain sunset clauses to retire ineffective projects, while legacy structures and incentives make it difficult to discontinue old programs and free up resources for new ideas. All this makes innovation painfully slow.