A publication in collaboration with the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and the UNDP Accelerator Labs. 

Access to energy remains a concerning challenge for many worldwide, and grassroots innovation presents a valid solution to this challenge. This document presents a comprehensive normative framework for analyzing bottom-up innovations, the Grassroots Thinking Approach. Through this approach, we aim to provide criteria for assessing the contextual factors in which grassroots solutions emerge and exist, the characteristics of the innovation and its goodness of fit or appropriateness within the system that it exists in, and elements for ‘success.’