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Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed.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.
Overview
Prepared by (Name of the experimenter)
Lazar Pop Ivanov
On date (Day/Month/Year)
09/04/2024
Current status of experimental activity
Completed
What portfolio does this activity correspond to? If any
This activity is cross cluster, and responds to all portfolios in our country office.
What is the frontier challenge does this activity responds to?
People's participation's in core development processes.
What is the learning question(from your action learning plan) is this activity related to?
Can we bring new ideas, ways of thinking and innovation into the public debate in North Macedonia on how to move the Agenda 2030 forward?
Please categorize the type that best identifies this experimental activity:
Quasi experimental (Analytical, observations, etc)
Which sector are you partnering with for this activity? Please select all that apply
Private Sector, Civil Society/ NGOs, Academia
Please list the names of partners mentioned in the previous question:
CSO: Institute for Human Rights [co-creation process with the organization]
Private sector: Representative from Chamber of commerce as a keynote speaker for the event; authors in the publication coming from innovative small companies.
Academia: the Dean of the Law Faculty in Skopje as the keynote speaker for the event, professors as authors in the publication.
Design
What is the specific learning intent of the activity?
Can we bring new ideas, ways of thinking and innovation into the public debate in North Macedonia on how to move the Agenda 2030 forward?
What is your hypothesis? IF... THEN....
If UNDP solicits ideas from the public [particularly among communities that have vested interest in development policies: the media, civil society, academia, practitioners, youth] on how we can move the agenda 2030 forward, we can encourage the utilization of innovation, digitalization and new ways of thinking, financing, working to achieve the Goals.
Does the activity use a control group for comparison?
Yes, a different group entirely
How is the intervention assigned to different groups in your experiment?
Other
Describe which actions will you take to test your hypothesis:
Open call for soliciting ideas to advance the SDGs in North Macedonia.
What is the unit of analysis of this experimental activity?
Number of interested applicants/essays.
Please describe the data collection technique proposed
All data was collected through a civil society organization, that we partnered up with in the process.
What is the timeline of the experimental activity? (Months/Days)
Three months
What is the estimated sample size?
50-99
What is the total estimated monetary resources needed for this experiment?
Between 1,000 and 9,999 USD
Quality Check
This activity is relevant to a CPD outcome, The hypothesis is clearly stated, This activity offers strong collaboration oportunities, This activity offers a high potential for scaling, This activity has a low risk
Please upload any supporting images or visuals for this experiment.
Please upload any supporting links
What are the estimated non- monetary resources required for this experiment? (time allocation from team, external resources, etc) If any.
Results
Was the original hypothesis (If.. then) proven or disproven?
The original hypothesis has been proven.
Do you have observations about the methodology chosen for the experiment? What would you change?
I would have loved to make this experiment on a more niche topic, including: societal polarization, or innovations for water governance in North Macedonia.
From design to results, how long did this activity take? (Time in months)
Three months from the design to the creation of the publication. With additional two months for organizing a launching event and promotional activities.
What were the actual monetary resources invested in this activity? (Amount in USD)
6,000$
Does this activity have a follow up or a next stage? Please explain
As a result of this activity, we are negotiating collaboration with the private sector and the academic communities on how to integrate SDGs in their line of work.
Is this experiment planned to scale? How? With whom?
This iteration of the experiment is a replication of an experiment we conducted in January - May 2023 while focusing on the theme: solidarity's renewed role in development.
Please include any supporting images that could be used to showcase this activity
Please add any supporting links that describe the planning, implementation, results of learning of this activity? For example a tweet, a blog, or a report.
Considering the outcomes of this experimental activity, which of the following best describe what happened after? (Please select all that apply)
Learning
What do you know now about the action plan learning question that you did not know before? What were your main learnings during this experiment?
- Experimenting with crowd-sourcing ideas from the public is proving to be a useful engagement and programmatic tool for the UNDP country office.
- Experimenting with partnering up with think tanks in various development themes, for a co-creation journey of knowledge products is proving to be useful for UNDP to reach new audiences and prepare better knowledge products.
- Practitioners, Academics and Scholars appreciate the opportunity to be featured in UNDP led processes/knowledge products and are willing to undergo competitive processes in doing so.
- In-depth debates/discussions rather than ceremonial debates, are important for us to learn more about the innovations and key debates outside the UN system.
What were the main obstacles and challenges you encountered during this activity?
Peer reviewing the articles is always challenging, so in addition to the Lab, we invited the CSO we partnered up with to propose members of the selection/peer-reviewing committee.
Who at UNDP might benefit from the results of this experimental activity? Why?
Some of the important insights for UNDP from the launching event, include:
- Data, the lack of publicly available, open data is proving to be a challenge for researchers, that pursue projects that are adjacent to the Agenda 2030.
- Private sector, there are companies in North Macedonia that are doing a very good job in reporting for the ESGs, and we need to familiarize them with the SDGs. There are also some sustainable practices incorporated in companies, that we can build on, as good practices.
- Academia, there are almost no chapters/segments in academic curricula that focus on the SDG agenda. Universities are eager to team up with UNDP on creating content for their students.
-Journalists, the key battle journalists seem to be fighting is within their offices, when they want to report on stories connected to SDGs or development. Editorial teams usually prefer more click-intensive stories.
As for the publication itself, the topics and data shared in the publication, proved to be useful for programmatic purposes in the country office as well as other UN agencies.
Who outside UNDP might benefit from the results of this experiment? and why?
Academia --> incorporating SDGs in their curriculum,
Did this experiment require iterations? If so, how many and what did you change/adjust along the way? and why?
We have done two iterations of the experimental activities to crowdsource ideas from the general public. Once we focused on a theoretical argument, asking people to contribute ideas on how solidarity can enhance development. In this iteration we wanted more pragmatic and practical innovations on how to accelerate the SDGs in North Macedonia.
What advice would you give someone wanting to replicate this experimental activity?
Ensure that the portfilio's in the county office provide insights for the open call, and include them from the design phase of the process.
Can this experiment be replicated in another thematic area or other SDGs? If yes, what would need to be considered, if no, why not?
Yes, I think this experiment can be replicated in multiple development thematic areas.
How much the "sense" and "explore" phases of the learning cycle influenced/shaped this experiment? In hindsight, what would you have done differently with your fellow Solution Mapper and Explorer?
What surprised you?
4Quality education
5Gender equality
8Decent work and economic growth
9Industry, innovation and infrastructure
10Reduced innequalities
11Sustainable cities and communities
13Climate action
16Peace, justice and strong institutions
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