Hey! I am Adriana De Oro, a social innovation manager with nine years of experience at the United Nations, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Interested in innovation culture and innovation for social good? Check out my blog.

International Trade Centre

2018–present

This was my transition to development coming from humanitarian innovation. I found a natural match between the hands-on methodologies that we practice in the innovation sector with the mission of the organization: technical assistance for small businesses in developing economies. This combined with a nice group of people made me think back in 2018 that this was an organization I was going to work for a long time. Which has been the case.

Global Humanitarian Lab

2016 – 2018

I didn’t want to leave UNHCR after only one year. However, there wasn’t a clear role for me in the team, and we were going through a transition where one of the heads of the unit went on to found a new initiative aiming to be the innovation lab serving all humanitarian agencies, quite ambitious. I was offered the opportunity to join them. I learned a bunch about operating procedures at a United Nations initiative, and got involved in a city-wide multi stakeholder innovation event that introduced me to the International Trade Centre.

High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

2015-2016

I connected with UNHCR in the most unexpected way—through Twitter (now X). I reached out to the co-lead of the Innovation Unit at the time, asking if he’d be interested in me conducting research on their first innovation project for my master’s dissertation. To my surprise, he said yes. Initially, I thought it was a joke, but it taught me an important lesson: sometimes, all it takes is asking a question to unlock a fantastic opportunity.

I did have a past life before ending in innovation at the United Nations. Between my bachelor’s and master’s degree, I knew I wanted to have some work experience before deciding what to specialize in. My ideal work at the time would have been Greenpeace, but I didn’t believe I deserved to work there, it seemed far away and for such reason I didn’t take any step to make it happen. Silly right?

Anyhow, I pursued another opportunity that proved to be one of the most formative experiences in my life. I lived for three and a half years in Beirut, Lebanon, working in diplomacy while doing other things like volunteering in refugee camps and supporting a friend in the consolidation of his social business remotely. This is when I realized that I wanted to work in social innovation and entrepreneurship.