Youth x Innovation: Inside IFRC Limitless

As a member of the award-winning IFRC Limitless Youth Innovation Academy team, I have been deeply involved in shaping one of the most ambitious youth-led innovation programmes in the humanitarian sector. My work for the Climate & Environment edition spanned global programme communications, multilingual community management, embedding safeguarding principles, and contributing actively to risk assessment and knowledge building. I also played a role in strengthening partnerships with Red Cross and Red Crescent actors.

Between 2022 and 2024, the programme empowered over 6,700 young leaders from 142 National Societies, catalysing 1500 innovative projects and funding 905 across 82 countries, and impacting 2.2 million community members. Trainings were delivered through accessible messaging platforms (WhatsApp®, WeChat®), and a custom-built video platform co-developed with Monash University, ensuring participation even in low-bandwidth contexts.

YouTube as a game-changing platform

Solferino Voices is a special YouTube channel built to share about innovation in the Red Cross and Red Crescent network. It is currently hosting thousands of innovation videos. Along our Limitless journey, our team could launch new playlists and innovative challenges for participants. Navigating these different playlist is an endless source of learnings and positive energy. And you should be amazed by some outstanding initiatives. See the 10 final awardees videos here.

With Solferino Voices, Limitless amplified youth voices globally: project videos gained hundreds of thousands views on YouTube, and five high-potential initiatives were even showcased to senior leadership at the IFRC General Assembly and two more at the Biodiversity COP, highlighting the power of grassroots innovation for sustainable futures.

Learning and Growing

Learning about innovation has been incredibly rewarding. It expanded my approach to project and programme management by integrating the full innovation cycle, with all its benefits, into my practice. It gave me new tools and a new mindset to approach challenges, and to easily design and develop integrated, community-driven solutions. In communications and engagement, I kept learning too, developing a strong appetite for exploring new tools and techniques to better connect and inspire accross borders and languages.

The challenges we faced as a team required agility and adaptability at a level I had never experienced before. Yet, within that setup, we built stronger connections and paved the way for a lasting community of innovators throughout the Red Cross and Red Crescent network. I'm incredibly proud and thankful for this. To my Limitless teammates, especially our lead, Henry Cáceres, and to every mentor and participant: thank you. Your energy, resilience, and shared vision transformed a bold idea into a living, growing force for change.

Being part of the IFRC Limitless team has been one of the true highlights of my professional journey. It brought together everything I value: working at multiple levels, blending skills in creative and innovative ways, and witnessing change unfold in real time. In this second edition, I had the privilege to experience innovation like never before: watching hundreds of youth-led teams create local prototypes, step out of their comfort zones, embrace challenges, iterate, and improve lives in their communities.

What impressed me most was that, despite its global scale, the programme remained 100% local at heart. It confirmed that with the right cause, platforms, and messages, it is possible to connect thousands of people from vastly different contexts, and to build genuine trust and excitement among hundreds of mentors and participants. That trust became the foundation for deeper engagement, with word of the programme spreading rapidly across the network.

Next Chapter: Limitless Peace (Launch Late 2025)

The next edition of Limitless is on its way, and this time, the focus is on peace, social cohesion, and community resilience. Launching in late 2025, Limitless Peace will build on the Academy’s proven model to empower young volunteers to design and implement peace-focused innovations, connecting grassroots action with global humanitarian leadership.

For updates, details, and more exciting news, visit the👉 Solferino Academy Website and sign up to the weekly newsletter.