Relevance gap: We started with exclusions in the labor market as our broad frontier challenge and in this learning cycle we zoomed into the exclusions of persons with disabilities in formal employment, which is one part of the bigger system.   Instead of jumping to the experiment (testing the policy) right away, we engaged in a collective intelligence process to unpack the issue further to see if the policy addresses the issue adequately. Dedicating time to exploring this space and engaging at the policy level   and the local island level helped us discover the relevance gap between centralized policy and local level implementation. We understood beyond the recruitment pathways, the organizational readiness and workplace adjustments measures also need to be in place to ensure meaningful inclusion of PWD's through the policy.   Testing and experimenting is crucial. During the field missions and other engagements, for many stakeholders it was hard to envision the implementation challenges of this policy because such a solution has never been in place before. Well intentioned policies often do not manifest the envisioned results or sometimes even lead to unintended consequences. It became obvious that certain aspects of the policy needed to be tested or trialed at a small scale to see if it would work at the national and island level. Together with Civil Service Commission (CSC), we are developing an assessment tool to test the recruitment pathways of the policy which will generate valuable learnings for the implementation. Nothing about us without us. Our government partner's engagement with stakeholders was limited during the policy formulation process.  Making an intentional effort to include the diverse voices of PWD's themselves and the stakeholders who have a direct stake in this issue/policy was met with appreciation and genuine feedback. Our engagement with PWD's, government and civil society at local and central level allowed us to understand the dynamics of the issue in different contexts. It helped validate and invalidate our assumptions and generated valuable feedback on the proposed policy, map existing solutions, and design the future experiment. Above all, our main learning from the process was embracing the notion, nothing about us without us. And we carry this with us to our other streams of work.

https://www.mv.undp.org/content/maldives/en/home/blog/2021/acclaboneyear.html

Working with government partners, especially at the central level policy/regulatory level it is a challenge to form and sustain partnerships due to swaying political will. Despite a successful partnership with the Civil Service Commission (CSC), internal restructuring within the organization, political pressures and overlapping mandates between different agencies have affected our timeline making it difficult to take fast action. Since partner buy in is important to to amplify learnings and grow the solutions, the political environment sometimes leads us to question about the continuity of the partnerships and initiatives.  

Direct interviews: In order to address lack of qualitative data on multiple and varied experiences of individuals and organisations, we used direct interviews to gather data that will allow us to capture these experiences and lived journeys.  Direct interviews helped to gain a comparative understanding of individual and institutional experiences between the capital and outer atolls in the country. This is particularly important given the nature of the geographical distribution of the country (188 inhabited islands spread over 90,000 square kilometres), Policies made at the central often neglect the context, experiences and realities at the local island level.     Secondary data: There is limited sources of data available for vulnerable groups like persons with disability. Even the available data sits in the information systems in government agencies and is rarely used by or shared with other agencies. We sourced existing data from the National Social Protection Agencey (NSPA's), social protection information management system to inform the Civil Service inclusion policy co-design process. We gathered data on the number of people with disabilities, disaggregated by age groups, locations and type/categorization of disability. Knowing the distribution of people of with disabilities helped shift the policymakers focus from centralized thinking to consider policy implementation challenges at the decentralized/island level.

Collective Intelligence: To address the exclusions of PWD's, we needed to embrace the social model of disability rather than the medical model, which is still prevalent in the society. Together with the relevant stakeholders we wanted to move beyond the individual's impairments to the restriction and exclusions placed   by society. Together with key stakeholders (individuals with disabilities, government, CSO's) we developed our issue mapping and stakeholder mapping, considering the environment, systems, processes, and actors, allowing us gather collective knowledge and understanding on the challenge. This helped refine the issue mapping, filled gaps in our knowledge in terms of other stakeholders we might be excluding.     Human Centered Design: Involving those who are most affected by the problem/policy in co-creating the solution/policy was crucial. Through the collective Intelligence design workshop, one-on-one interactions, Immersion works during field works and direct interviews with civil service office in the islands we observed and listened to people with diverse types of disabilities and people who live and worked with PWD's. This helped us move beyond seeing people with disabilities as a uniform group and understand the diversity of sub-groups within this community and consider their unique needs and challenges. The insights and learnings generated not only contributed to revising the proposed government policy but also is helping us in design of the experiment and the assessment tool to focus on the PWD's needs, requirements and realities. .    Solutions Mapping: Mapping existing practices in public and private sector within the Maldives and outside, for PWD inclusion in employment. We were able to gather knowledge on some of the related initiatives and studies undertaken by other stakeholders in the country and identify avenues for collaboration by leverage existing resources and networks within the local ecosystem. It was also beneficial to listen to some of the actors who have developed these related interventions in attempting to address the issue before us so we may apply the lessons learnt. 

Organizations of Persons with Disabilities (OPD's): Maldives Autism Association, Beautiful Eyes Down Syndrome Association, Care Society Maldives, Maldives Deaf Association, Maldives Association of Physical Disables, and Villi Joali.  Inputs from OPD during Collective Intelligence workshop helped us to refine and enhance the initial issue mapping and stakeholder mapping undertaken by the Accelerator Lab. Insights from OPDs were instrumental in filling the gaps in our knowledge. Moreover, OPDs also contributed to creating a solutions brief and in mapping such solution(s) or close solutions that already exists and may have already been tested and tried.   Stakeholder consultations for policy validation. OPDs also actively contributed to the discussion around policy validation. Specifically, in this platform, we concentrated on unpacking practical considerations in implementing the policy.

Civil Service Commission: We worked with the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to support them in the policy process, focusing on creating employment pathways for Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in Civil Service employment. As part of this process, CSC and Accelerator Lab engaged with different actors including Persons with disabilities, CSO's, government and private sector. We also conducted a Collective Intelligence Design workshop convening multiple stakeholders from different parts of the system. Additionally, during the lab field missions the lab carried out immersion walks, direct conversations PWD's and civil service offices based in the islands (local council secretariats, health facilities and schools) to understand key factors for consideration to ensure successful policy implementation on the ground.  

Resident Coordinator's office: in the Collective Intelligence workshop and contributed towards understanding the ongoing initiatives, identifying avenues for resources, and bringing in the global and the local context. There is potential to expand the conversation in the next stages and identify further avenues for collaboration. 

The interplay of unusual partners and innovation methods helped us unpack the challenge in two important ways. Firstly, use of collective intelligence helped stakeholders develop a social and systems based understanding of exclusion of persons with disabilities and believe that this can be addressed with collective and intentional efforts. Secondly taking a human centered approach and feeding these insights to the policy process helped bridge the relevance gap that exists in centralized government policy making. These learnings will greatly influence in the design of the experiment/polivy testing and subsequently the policy roll out.