Promoting capacity building in public and social innovation for sustainable development across sectors

Our challenge is to promote, build, and scale up public and social innovation capacities to strengthen how institutions and organizations across sectors address development challenges at national and local levels.

Since its beginning in 2019, the AccLabPY has priotized social and public innovation as key enablers of sustainable development at all levels. Placing a strong focus on capacity building, we have followed the path of several iterating learning loops during these first 5 years, having generated both impact and key lessons for the development of policies for public innovation. # Public innovation: from public sector innovation to a national system of public innovation In the public sector, the challenge of increasing the capacity of innovation follows the need of delivering better public services and designing better public policies, which directly affect citizens’ wellbeing by making fundamental rights a reality: quality public education, affordable public healthcare, access to basic services such as energy and water; public innovation has the potential to improve all of these through better public services and policies. In turn, public goods such as these services can reduce vulnerabilities and turn back the dial on inequalities, a key factor of democratic backsliding as shown by the 2023/2024 Human Development Report “Breaking the gridlock” and the 2024 UNDP Trends Report “The Landscape of Development”. As inequality rises, the strength of democracy falls, leading to a pressing social scenario where most of the half of the world population are supporting leaders that erode democracy. Public innovation, therefore, is an enabler in the path toward stopping democratic backsliding. At the same time, the public sector is facing new challenges with the arrival of frontier technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), both in its internal and external relations and outcomes. The opportunities and risks that come with AI make the need to innovate even more relevant: to seize the potential of AI for good while mitigating its dangers, public innovation needs to emerge in the institutional, social, and technological dimensions of our public services and policies, to improve the quality of their outcomes and to respond to the contemporary problems of the citizens, including the need for a better and more direct relation and participation. Public innovation is therefore a fundamental cornerstone of citizens’ wellbeing and the quality of our democracies. How do we build up the nations’ muscle for this type of innovation? The capacity for public innovation depends on how much research, development and innovation tools and methods are integrated into institutional functions, mechanisms, and human capital, across government institutions and other organizations that support the design and implementation of public policies and services. To face that challenge, since 2019, the AccLab has been working closely with Paraguay’s National Innovation Strategy (ENI), a cross-cutting public-private initiative that is working to promote a better change within the system. Another key ally is the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT), who has committed significant financial resources to carry out the capacity building programs that will strengthen scientific capacity, as well as directly supporting different forms of innovation. By asking how we can develop capacities for innovation in the public sector, we engaged with these allies in a continuous learning journey which is now entering its fifth year. In each new learning cycle, new lessons emerged about how to build capacities for research, development and innovation in the public sector, and its key supporting organizations. We first helped ENI identify the key national innovation challenges that today orient public policies such as the Science, Technology, and Innovation Agenda of CONACYT (https://www.conacyt.gov.py/documentos-agenda-nacional-ciencia-tecnologia-innovacion). As the pandemic ensued, our learning turn to how we can articulate the national innovation system toward one of those challenges, which was already aligned to the challenge increasing resilience against pandemics (https://www.conacyt.gov.py/presentaron-plataforma-innovadora-para-fortalecer-iniciativas-emprendedores). Articulation opened the opportunity to apply our R&D+i methods to specific challenges within this bigger one in 2021, through Wendá (https://wenda.org.py/). As a result of this alliance, the Public Innovators Program was born in 2022. The Program builds capacities in public officials from several national institutions through hands-on training, mentoring, and the development of innovation pilots. During its first three editions, the Program trained over 150 public officials and supported the implementation and evaluation of 16 public innovation pilots. This year, the Program enters its fourth edition, incorporating 40 more public officials organized into 10 institutional teams. Based on lessons learned from past editions, this cycle introduces new improvements and opens the door for greater collaboration.

The AccLabPY brings unique value to the Public Innovators Program, which it co-leads alongside the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). This strategic partnership has positioned the Program as a flagship initiative to build innovation capacities within the public sector. The Lab plays a central role in its design, implementation, and scaling, offering an approach grounded in experimentation, systems thinking, and co-creation. Specifically, the AccLab adds value in three key ways: 1) Institutional strengthening: By co-designing and supporting the Program with CONACYT and IDB, the Lab ensures alignment with national priorities while fostering the institutionalization of public innovation practices. 2) Hands-on capacity building: Through its mentorship and methodological support, the Lab helps public servants learn by doing accompanying the design, testing, and evaluation of pilot projects that address real institutional and citizen needs. 3) Network building and articulation: The Lab acts as a connector among national government actors, local institutions, academia, and the private sector positioning the Program as a platform for collaborative innovation. The success of the Program with over 150 public officials trained and 16 pilot projects developed across its first three editions reflects the strategic role of the AccLab in bridging gaps between policy, people, and practical implementation. Its continued leadership ensures the Program’s potential for scale and its contribution to a more innovative and responsive public sector.

By scaling up the Public Innovators Program, capacities for innovation in the public sector are being strengthened at both national and local levels. Through hands-on training, mentoring, and pilot implementation, the Program equips public institutions with tools and methodologies to design and test innovative solutions that improve public service delivery and promote sustainable development.

How might we continue to strengthen and expand innovation capacities across national and local governments, civil society organizations, academia, and the private sector to foster public and social innovation?   How can these capacities be translated into practice—enabling actors to promote, design, implement, document, and scale public policies, services, and community-based solutions that contribute to sustainable development?

To address our learning questions, we will apply Human-Centered Design (HCD) and Prototyping as core methodologies throughout the implementation of the Public Innovators Program. 1) Human-Centered Design will guide the teams in deeply understanding the needs, motivations, and experiences of the people affected by the challenges they are addressing—whether citizens, public servants, or community members. This approach ensures that solutions are grounded in real contexts, and that public innovation is inclusive, empathetic, and relevant. 2) Prototyping will be used to turn ideas into tangible early-stage versions that can be tested within institutions. This method allows public officials to experiment, gather feedback, and iterate before scaling. It also creates a safe space to learn from failure and adapt solutions based on what works in practice. Together, these methods will not only build capacities in innovation, but also generate actionable insights on how these capacities can become sustained practices ultimately leading to improved public services and community-led solutions for sustainable development.

Traditional public sector data in Paraguay tends to focus on administrative, quantitative, and output-level indicators (e.g., service coverage, budget execution), which often overlook the human experience, institutional dynamics, and implementation challenges of public services and innovation processes. The new data sources we are using help address several key gaps: 1) Lack of user perspective: Co-creation insights and user interviews allow us to incorporate the voices of citizens and frontline staff something rarely captured in official reports or policy evaluations. 2) Limited understanding of institutional barriers: Ethnographic observations and learning logs provide qualitative evidence of the day-to-day obstacles that public officials face when trying to innovate within their organizations. 3) Absence of implementation feedback loops: Prototyping documentation and iterative feedback help us track how ideas evolve, what adaptations are necessary, and what conditions enable or block the adoption of new solutions. 4) Uncaptured learning processes: Reflections from participants shed light on the development of innovation mindsets and practices an area not typically measured but critical for long-term capacity building. By addressing these data gaps, we are able to generate a deeper and more actionable understanding of how innovation capacities are built and how they influence the design and delivery of more effective, inclusive, and sustainable public services.

In the growth phase of this challenge, key beneficiaries and potential champions include: 1) Public institutions that have already participated in the Public Innovators Program and are ready to scale successful pilots or integrate innovation practices more structurally into their operations. 2) The National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), as strategic partners that can help consolidate institutional support and expand the Program's reach. 3) Civil society and private sector partners that have collaborated during the co-creation phases can become long-term allies in scaling solutions and creating cross-sector ecosystems for innovation.