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Innovation from the Edges: Centering People and Planet in Institutional Evolution
- Natalia Arjomand
- 13 minutes ago
- 4 min read
Reflections from Istanbul Innovation Days 2025
On a spring morning in Istanbul, I found myself inspired sitting in a room filled with provocateurs: UN advisors, feminist economists, local organizers, AI ethicists, and more. We weren’t there to pitch innovations.
We were there to ask harder questions.
Istanbul Innovation Days 2025 was not about showcasing new technologies or simply announcing breakthroughs. It was about slowing down long enough to interrogate the very institutions we rely on to govern society. Long enough to ask: What happens when the systems we built no longer meet the needs of the present?
In this post, I share a few reflections from the panel I was honoured to speak on and what it means for anyone working to make finance, governance, or innovation truly serve people and planet.
🎥 You can watch the full panel discussion here, where I share some of these reflections live alongside Eduard Muller, President and Rector of The University for International Cooperation and Leader of Regenerate Costa Rica; Giacomo Pinaffo, Secretary General of Fondazione MeSSiNA; Miles Khubeka, Founder of the Wakanda Food Accelerator; and Alberto Cottica Economist at UNDP Accelerator Labs.
The Tension or Opportunity
Across sectors and borders, we are watching institutions—governments, financial systems, even NGOs—struggle to adapt. Designed for stability, many of these institutions have become brittle in the face of volatility. From climate shocks to democratic erosion, it’s not just what’s happening that’s new. It’s how fast and how interconnected everything has become.
And yet, we still ask our institutions to respond with certainty, with linearity, with control.
That’s the tension. Innovation, when practiced honestly, demands humility. It demands iteration. And institutions—particularly those rooted in public service—need new ways to navigate uncertainty without abandoning purpose.
That’s the opportunity.
On the panel, I shared how at SecondMuse Capital, we’ve seen that transformation rarely comes from the centre. It starts at the edges—when communities traditionally left out of decision-making are invited to help reimagine what’s possible. In our Future Economy Labs, our research and design process to co-create new financial products, we often bring together a diverse group of stakeholders ranging from small business owners, to local governments, to global financial institutions.
Instead of scaling a single solution, we often take a portfolio approach—testing multiple ideas in context, with the people most affected at the table.
Rather than focus on metrics of efficiency alone, we prioritized community-grounded insights and track what truly mattered to those involved. One partner told us something I still carry with me: “You treated our lived experience as the expertise.”
That, to me, is what institutional evolution looks like.
What became clear in Istanbul—and what we live every day—is that institutional innovation is not about efficiency upgrades. It’s about reorienting systems around relational accountability. That means:
Letting go of top-down design and embracing co-creation.
Funding learning, not just outcomes.
Seeing governance not as control, but as care.
If we want to manage capital in service of resilient, inclusive economies, we have to build feedback loops into our institutions. We must allow them to evolve like ecosystems, not machines.
“Innovation that doesn’t shift power or centre public value isn’t innovation. It’s just rebranding.”
These insights aren’t theoretical. They have real implications for how we show up—whether we're designing policy, deploying capital, or testing new infrastructure.
So, Who is This Reflection For and Why Might It Matter to You?
🏛️ Public Sector Innovators & Policy Shapers
You’re navigating complexity daily. This is a reminder that adaptability, not just accountability, should be baked into governance. You don’t need all the answers—you need space to test, iterate, and evolve.
💸 Philanthropic Funders & Impact Investors
You're uniquely positioned to resource experimentation. But are your funding mechanisms designed for that? Institutional innovation requires capital that moves at the pace of trust, not just metrics.
🚀 Social Entrepreneurs & Ecosystem Builders
You're already working in the liminal spaces. This framing offers language and validation for what you know intuitively: that innovation is relational, not transactional—and power-aware by design.
📚 Academics, Researchers & Think Tanks
This is an open door to translate theory into practice. Your work is vital in framing narratives, building evidence, and legitimizing new models that are already in motion at the margins.
🌍 SecondMuse Capital Allies & FEL Stakeholders
You’ve shaped the thinking that made this reflection possible. This is both a thank you and a call to keep pushing: how might we build financial infrastructure that doesn’t just serve systems, but redefines them?
5 Questions for Those Shaping the Future of Institutions:
What assumptions about control, growth, or risk are embedded in our governance systems?
Are we funding certainty or are we funding learning?
How are power and agency distributed in the design of new economic models?
What might it look like to centre care and dignity as institutional KPIs?
Are we willing to be wrong—and to change course when communities tell us we missed the mark?
Closing The Loop
Istanbul Innovation Days didn’t give us answers, and that’s part of what made it meaningful. It created space to sit with uncertainty, to name what isn’t working, hear examples of what is possible and to ask harder questions about what the future could look like. It reminded me that institutions aren’t fixed. They’re shaped by people and they can be reshaped by us.
If you’re building policy, moving capital, or designing systems that affect people’s lives, this isn’t abstract.
The work of reimagining institutions is already underway. The question is: How are you going to participate in that change?
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