Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed.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.
Title
Please provide a name for your action learning plan.
National Innovation Network
Challenge statement
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 that public policies take innovation methodologies into account, whether in the design or implementation phase. We want public policies to have a greater impact, and to be able to federate the population around their objectives.
We also want to export the experimentation methodology to all Country Office programs, shifting from classic project implementation to a more flexible portfolio approach.
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?
We've noticed that in Tunisia, more and more people are identifying with innovative methodologies such as Design Thinking, behavioral sciences... We believe that creating a network between innovation professionals and practitioners, be they academics, associations or government bodies, could help create the collaborative synergy needed for the country's development.
- In September, we launched a call on social networks to identify and map innovation players in Tunisia.
- In November, we selected the profiles we were interested in and discussed the initiative with them.
- On December 2, we organized a 1st informal meeting with them. We had 28 participants
-The second meeting will take place on December 22 and 23, and will examine the insights gained from the 1st meeting.
It was noted that the innovation ecosystem in Tunisia, despite the will of the players and their efforts, remains highly fragmented and has little impact on public policy.
Our aim is to use the material and immaterial resources of the UNDP to cement this network and build bridges with the State to include innovation in public policies.
We'll be trying to create a collaborative dynamic rather than a fixed form of organization between the participants at our meeting.
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.
Tunisia has fallen six places in the "Global Innovation Index" rankings for the year 2023. The country is ranked 79, down from 73 in 2022.
https://www.wipo.int/global_innovation_index/en/2023
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.
In Tunisia, there's a lot of talk about innovation, and we're seeing a proliferation of initiatives in this direction, especially in civil society. The problem is that the impact is weak, especially when compared with the State, which remains cautious and classic in its approaches.
Tunisia achieved negative growth of 0.2% in the 3rd quarter of 2023, a first in the country's history.
Innovation can play a decisive role in overcoming this growth problem.
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?
What makes the Accelerator Lab so special is its interdisciplinary approach. It can involve several policy spaces and players simultaneously to create a collaborative network. None of the UNDP's structures have this flexibility.
We have succeeded in bringing together a wide variety of professions and disciplines within this network, and we expect collaborations to emerge from this networking that will require both tangible and intangible support.
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
In a fast-changing world, innovation is no longer an accessory or an option; it's a state of mind and a concrete manifestation of a set of theoretical and practical tools that have a positive impact on the conditions of human existence.
This is the understanding of UNDP Tunisia and its Accelerator Lab of innovation applied to development.
In 2023, the UNDP Tunisia Accelerator Lab contacted local professionals working on innovation methods to map the ecosystem in Tunisia. We identified Living Labs, Innovation Labs, firms specializing in Behavioural Insights, Design Thinking, Future Thinking, etc., and got an idea of their initiatives in applying innovation methods to influence public policy.
Partners
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 partner:
Agency for the Promotion of Industry and Innovation
Tunis School of Engineers
National School of Architecture and Urban Planning
Living Lab Sfax
University of Jendouba
What sector does our partner belong to?
Academia
Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.
At this stage, all of these parties and many others have accepted UNDP's invitation to build a network of innovators throughout Tunisia. After the first meetings, the participants formed into 6 groups acting on public policies. new collaborations are being developed between them
Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?
Yes
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
How to create common ground between disparate and fragmented players? and thus generate collaborations impacting public policies ?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Sense, Explore, Test, Grow
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?
in meetings between innovation actors we use these methods to facilitate and cement the group and try to generate collaborations and sharing between them.
These tools were very beneficial for the identification of public policies on which the participants worked together
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?
In building a networks, Data is important but progress is made continuously with the people who join it.
Closing
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?
This network contains several profiles from various backgrounds: eatic institutions, academicians, practitioners, associations... the impact could be on all these areas with room for rapid progress. The objective being the public policies, these will be the most impacted, which will be reflected in a palpable change in the lives of citizens.
END OF ACTION LEARNING PLAN: Thank you! The form saves automatically and your submission has been recorded. You may now exit this window.
8Decent work and economic growth
9Industry, innovation and infrastructure
17Partnerships for the goals
Comments
Log in to add a comment or reply.