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Posted by Rex Lor
UNDP Philippines Accelerator Lab
Innovation methods
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SDG(s)
Sustainable Development Goal(s)
11Sustainable cities and communities
12Responsible consumption and production
14Life below waterPlease be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.
What are the top 5 key insights you generated about your frontier challenge during this Action Learning Plan?
1. That a combination of human-centered design and systems thinking bring diverse stakeholders towards a shared frame of reference for collective action. 2. A multistakeholder participatory approach is an effective way to drive interest, advocate for support, and generate new innovative ideas. 3. Emphasis on generating new economic development supporting COVID-19 recovery. 4. That complex challenges require shared accountability and a whole-of-city approach. 5. A good collaboration with Programme team is essential to move things forward.
Please paste the link(s) to the blog(s) that articulate the learnings on your frontier challenge.
Did you experience any barriers or bottlenecks when impacting the system, working on your frontier challenge respectively?
The following are the barriers working back : 1. National and local elections is set on May 2022. This may derail the experiments and planned experiment for 2022. 2. Multiple UNDP projects with the city may overwhelm the partner.
For this frontier challenge, how much of your time did you dedicate to the stages in the learning cycle? Please make sure that your answers adds up to 100%.
Sense
25%
Explore
50%
Test
25%
Grow
0%
Please provide a name for your action learning plan.
Promoting Circular Economy in Philippine Cities
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge. Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
BIG BET
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
Our challenge is how to create a city-based circular economy model that is feasible, viable, and desirable.
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
The Circular Economy Frontier Challenge comes from the original Marine Litter frontier challenge undertaken by the AccLab PH in 2019. This is a result of the learnings from the Marine Litter challenge that points to the need to approach the challenge by embracing the complex dynamics of the system. By embracing the Circular Economy challenge, we are going beyond just marine litter or solid waste management but the whole system that ensures sustainable consumption and production (SDG Goal # 12).
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
The Philippines stands as the third largest contributor to marine litter in Asia, according to a study by Ocean Conservancy. As it stands, the Philippines generate 2.7 million tonnes of plastic waste annually and where 20% (500,000 tonnes) leaks into the oceans. With a population of 100 million relying on the ocean as its single biggest asset, marine litter is a threat to the environment, human health and the economy. Despite the Philippine Congress passing the Republic Act No. 9003, otherwise known as the Ecological Solid Management Act of 2000, the government is still struggling in implementing the law. As a complex issue, this involves everyone from the government, private sector, CSOs and the consumers. Jambeck, J. R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T. R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., ... & Law, K. L. (2015). Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science, 347(6223), 768-771.
Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.
The National Plan of Action (NPoA) on Marine Litter points to the need to approach the challenge in a systemic way and listed in one of its strategic directions the implementation and mainstreaming of Circular Economy in the Philippines. As the NPoA is identified as a high-level policy that covers the whole Philippines, the ALabPH, together with the Climate Action team and supported by the RBAP Regional Innovation Center (RIC), conducted a rapid ethnographic research and a series of systemic design workshops in Pasig City. Organized in partnership with the Pasig City government, a multistakeholder approach brought different sectors working on solid waste management and circular economy in the city and the greater Metro Manila. The workshop resulted in the identification of the ecosystem actors represented as personas, the current and desired system map, and the desired system shifts, and the portfolio of options. The portfolio of options also presents the thematic clusters pointing to the leverage points that allow for systemic change towards circularity in the city. Parallel to the systemic design workshops and portfolio ideation sessions is the implementation of experiments, already identified as "low-lying fruits" in the portfolio ideation sessions. These are: 1. Satellite remote sensing of plastics in the river system of Metro Manila (Japan SDGs Innovation Challenge) 2. Citizen science research to monitor and identify plastics in the smaller canals not covered by the satellite remote sensing project (Japan SDGs Innovation Challenge) 3. Transformation of Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) as Innovation for Circular Economy Hubs (ICE Hubs)
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
The ALabPH has already lent its expertise in designing the Multi-stakeholder Consultation for the drafting of the National Plan of Action (NPoA) on Marine Litter. In 2021, the AccLab Philippines, together with the Climate Action Team and the RBAP RIC, conducted a series of rapid ethnographic research and systemic design workshops to design a pathway towards circularity in Pasig City. The next learning cycle will focus more on portfolio ideation session to firm up the Portfolio of Solutions which will then inform the design of the Portfolio of Experiments scheduled to be implemented in 2022.
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
@UNDPPH, @UNDPAccLabs and @ricap_undp is supporting #PasigCity in their goal towards achieving #SDG12 through #CircularEconomy.
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the Parter:
Pasig City
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
Main implementation partner and recipient of the Systemic Design work.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
Yes
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the Parter:
Department of Environment & Natural Resources
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
Implementation and technical partner. They
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the Parter:
Circular Economy Startups (e.g. CLOOP, SariCycle, xChange, KILUS, etc.)
What sector does our partner belong to?
Private Sector
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
Solutions partner and participant in the systemic design work.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
No
Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.
Please state the name of the Parter:
Design Center of the Philippines
What sector does our partner belong to?
Government (&related)
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
Provides the design perspective in the circular economy conversation. They are also actively involved in circular economy projects linking design and entrepreneurship to accelerate the attainment of the SDGs.
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
Yes
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
What are the Portfolio of Solutions that presents strategic and systemic interventions that will allow for the transformation of the city towards circularity?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Sense, Explore, Test
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
The above key innovation methods are going to be combined using the Systemic Design Approach, a combination of HCD, Systems Thinking, and Portfolio of Experiments.
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
1. Drone and satellite data provides a bird's eye view on the current state of waste in the city. 2. Citizen-generated data to identify and monitor plastic waste in canals and estuaries in the city. 3. Multistakeholder discussions focusing on portfolio ideation and identification of key sector working on specific solutions. 4. The Behavioral nudge messaging allows for the AccLab to experiment on how to generate awareness and advocacy around Circular Economy.
Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?
While Pasig City is the clear beneficiary of the Systemic Design work for Circular economy, the results of the project will provide an opportunity for the model to be scaled out in other cities. There is also a potential for scale through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as Circular Economy is a major programmatic direction of the National Plan of Action on Marine Litter.
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Bonus question: How did the interplay of innovation methods, new forms of data and unusual partners enable you to learn & generate insights, that otherwise you would have not been able to achieve?
With the interplay of rapid ethnography, systemic design approach, and participatory multistakeholder approach, it allowed us to stress test how a Circular Economy might serve as a practical vision for addressing the waste challenge, particularly in the city context.
Please upload any further supporting evidence / documents / data you have produced on your frontier challenge that showcase your learnings.
Knowledge product set to be released in February 2022 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s1SNWIpyKXmQjuQpJc9w5tI3SYpDjH90/view?usp=sharing
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