An overview of grassroots innovation experiences in some countries

Grassroots innovations are community-based solutions which are provided to respond to the needs of the local community. Working with local knowledge will be developed with people’s interaction with each other and environmental challenges; grassroots innovations are easy and inexpensive, and easy to apply and replicate; the motivation for this type of innovation is not profit or commercialization, but the important principle in this type of innovation is preserving identity & culture. Grassroots innovations are usually informal, indigenous and local, and carried out by ordinary people who have no experiences in the formal and organized sectors to achieve sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is getting acquainted with grassroots innovations in other countries. In this study, we used the documentary method. We are going to examine the grassroots innovations in India, Brazil and Argentina, which were primers of grassroots innovation movements, and have taken a brief look at the grassroots innovations in countries such as Malaysia, China, South Africa, and England. Grassroots innovations are often formed to serve local goals or solve local problems. The two components of "greenness" (attention to the environment) and "low cost" are the most important components of popular innovations.