Promoting Circular Economy in Philippine Cities

Innovation methods

Data sources

SDG(s)

Sustainable Development Goal(s)

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Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed.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?

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.

1. https://www.ph.undp.org/content/philippines/en/home/blog/2019/a-problem-as-huge-as-the-ocean.html | 2. Knowledge product set to be released in February - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s1SNWIpyKXmQjuQpJc9w5tI3SYpDjH90/view?usp=sharing

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

Title

Please provide a name for your action learning plan.

Promoting Circular Economy in Philippine Cities

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 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.

Challenge classification

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 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?

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.)

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?

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.

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?

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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