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Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed.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.
Learnings on your challenge
What are the top 5 key insights you generated about your frontier challenge during this Action Learning Plan?
A digital database with socio-economic data from more than 30.000 market vendors, this type of data from the informal sector is groundbreaking in the country. Qualitative data from interviews and interactions with market vendors. A comprehensive understanding of elements to improve in the system using systems thinking. A Portfolio was designed including 3 experiments also designed.
Please paste the link(s) to the blog(s) that articulate the learnings on your frontier challenge.
https://www.ao.undp.org/content/angola/pt/home/blog/nextgencities-program--angola---urban-markets.html
https://www.ao.undp.org/content/angola/pt/home/blog/understanding-and-engaging-with-the-complexity-of-informal-urban.html
Did you experience any barriers or bottlenecks when impacting the system, working on your frontier challenge respectively?
We have experienced many constraints regarding the Government response and action time. It does not fit our faster implementation objectives. We were also unable to engage private sector due to UNDP/CO not being ready for it. Government interaction and cooperation does not exist, so you end-up working with different ministries individually instead of working all together for the same goal. We were not able to test the experiments we have designed in our portfolio.
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%.
Data and Methods
Relating to your types of data, why did you chose these? What gaps in available data were these addressing?
The data available was very limited. There was not even exact data on the number of vendors in each market. In terms of socio-economic data, origin of products, financial data, there was no data available. A comprehensive digital survey on the ground allowed us to fill all these gaps, which is groundbreaking in terms of having the information available for planning for this category of informal workers.
Why was it necessary to apply the above innovation method on your frontier challenge? How did these help you to unpack the system?
Pilots helped us show the Government what can be done to improve the conditions in the markets Simplified sensemaking with different groups helped us feed our Systems Thinking process System thinking allowed us to understand all the variables that impact the system in a short-period of time without being experts, but consulting experts in the process Data visualization allowed us to show the Government some of the main indicators and bring attention to the data (localized survey data in google earth, a dashboard in power BI, and a website with key graphs for the main indicators).
Partners
If applicable, what civil society organisations did you actually work with and what did you do with them?
We managed to have a focus group/sensemaking with APROVMEL, a vendors association.
If applicable, what academic partners (and related institutions) did you actually work with and what did you do with them?
We interacted individually with 2 angolan researchers from 2 different universities, during our systems thinking process. Their inputs were valuable for our work.
If applicable, what private sector partners did you actually work with and what did you do with them?
We worked with one service provider (LBC) who collected the data on the ground, using a team of 20 agents with tablets. We also consulted/interviewed Progest Angola, an architecture/planning company who had did a study on the markets. Private sector service providers and builders were hired by Municipal Administrations, using a competitive process, to build infrastructure in 3 selected markets.
If applicable, what government partners (and related institutions) did you actually work with and what did you do with them?
MAT - Ministry of Territory Administration Provincial Governments Municipal Administrations Market Administrations All actors above supported the implementation of infrastructure improvements in 3 markets, and accompanied the survey collection process in 24 markets.
Relating to your answers above: who of the partners listed were new and unusual partners for UNDP, and what made them special?
Interviewing university researchers/experts is not a common process in our CO, however it is key to learn from people that know about the issues in order to have a good understanding of the challenge. Hiring private sector digital skilled companies is also not common, but having a skilled team that can bring to the table digital solutions to make processes more agile and data digitally available is great.
If applicable, which UN internal partners did you actually work with and what did you do with them?
We worked with WHO while designing Bio-security guides that were distributed in 3 markets. We also had great support from a UNV colleague from our own UNDP CO, he is a data scientist that is assigned to a specific project but we had great collaboration from him. He created a power BI dashboard and inserted survey data into google earth, as well as providing some technical support to solve technical issues faced by the survey collection agents on the ground. Within the CO we activelly worked with Governance Unit and now expanding work with Inclusive Growth Unit.
End
Bonus question: How did the interplay of innovation methods, new forms of data and unusual partners enabled you to learn & generate insights, that otherwise you would have not been able to achieve?
The good thing about this work was to mix traditional CO project dynamics with new approaches. By doing both in parallel we managed to contribute for the CO to be well positioned to expand work on the informal economy. We are now Gov. partners in the re-conversion of the informal economy and will also start a new pilot on digital finance and mobile transactions in Markets.
Please upload any further supporting evidence / documents / data you have produced on your frontier challenge that showcase your learnings.
https://undp.sharepoint.com/:f:/s/Angola/EmLEn35jWHJChgdbwSpMMn4BuPPlHdQu0I9_KkpHb4x12Q?e=Mzei9d 
Voices of Mutundo Age: 54 Ir para este Sway
1No poverty
8Decent work and economic growth
10Reduced innequalities
Comments
Log in to add a comment or reply.