LocationsFive years of research, development and innovation (R&D+i) by AccLabPY.
Learning for Development: Principles and Tensions that Enrich Practice
6 de Diciembre de 2024
Turning five is a significant milestone in the development of every person. It marks the transition from early childhood to the experience of being a child, who now comes into contact with a more expanded world, filled with challenges of independence, self-awareness, reasoning, emotional regulation, and social interaction.
Though not a person, the UNDP Accelerator Lab in Paraguay (AccLabPY) is also reaching a crucial growth milestone: five years of pioneering a disruptive process within UNDP offices, integrating teams dedicated to the generation of knowledge and the promotion of learning through research, development and innovation applied to sustainable development challenges, ultimately diffusing learning to catalyze actions that can bring us closer to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
From how to monitor air pollution hotspots with geospatial AI platforms (AccLab India), to how to generate a science of smallholder agriculture (AccLab Guatemala), to how to use gamification for financial inclusion (AccLab Argentina), and how to dignify waste pickers’ work (AccLab Tanzania), the experiments of the 90+ Accelerator Labs have worked from the bottom up over these 5 years, aligning with national and local priorities that made sense in each country and community.
Five years ago, we envisioned our mission as a puzzle blending two distinct yet complementary perspectives: action and learning. Over time, we’ve learned to navigate the dynamic tension between these two, finding that this interplay ultimately enriches our work. This blog reflects on the first five years of the global network and AccLabPY, sharing key insights from our journey.
A Global Network for Innovation in Sustainable Development
Sustainable development is an urgent global challenge, which is experiencing the highest number of conflicts since 1945; which is increasing by 1.5 to 2°C per year due to climate change; which is witnessing the highest number of disasters such as floods, typhoons, hurricanes and droughts; and which is in a highly polarized scenario with an advancing democratic erosion. So how do we generate knowledge that provides evidence and learning about what works to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals? And where do we find the answers to these development challenges?
The Accelerator Lab Network was born in 2019 with 60 labs, expanding to 91 by 2020, now serving 115 countries worldwide. Its mission: listen to and learn from the experiences of eight billion people to promote grassroots innovation.
The learning loops methodology moves us along a continuum that has three modes of R&D+i work: it begins by assuming a position of humility; we know nothing of the problem we seek to solve, nor of its possible solutions. From there, we build a research, development and innovation process that first discovers and explores the problem in its environment to make sense of it, before attempting solutions out of context. And as the problem and its solutions are revealed, we develop and experiment with the solutions, to generate evidence about what works, what doesn't, and what are the conditions that make it possible for something to work. This is how the lessons we learn and the evidence we diffusecome together to catalyze actions that drive sustainable development.
This process has supported national strategies, such as North Macedonia’s National Development Strategy and Bolivia’s biodiversity protection through satellite technology. Additionally, global campaigns like People Powered have documented over 200 renewable energy initiatives, translating them into actionable knowledge.
In the ambitious experiment of the 91 Accelerator Labs, no top-down directives were imposed on the topics to be tackled. Instead, each Lab, guided by a people-centered design approach, defined its own frontier challenges and areas of focus for its learning loops. This bottom-up strategy has proven highly relevant. Over the past five years, the map of topics addressed illustrates the alignment of national and global priorities, highlighting areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), solid waste management, gender equality, innovation, governance, and civic participation, among others.
In the ambitious experiment of the 91 Accelerator Labs, no top-down directives were imposed on the topics to be tackled. Instead, each Lab, guided by a people-centered design approach, defined its own frontier challenges and areas of focus for its learning loops. This bottom-up strategy has proven highly relevant. Over the past five years, the map of topics addressed illustrates the alignment of national and global priorities, highlighting areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), solid waste management, gender equality, innovation, governance, and civic participation, among others.
Local challenges at the frontier of development: AccLabPY's missions
AccLabPY launched with the first cohort in October 2019, and did so by listening. We kicked off with a Solutions Mapping Workshop, in which we discussed these issues with a diversity of participants from cooperation, the public sector, private sector and civil society. This workshop, together with a series of sensemaking activities including interviews, focus groups, additional workshops, and the review of the strategic frameworks of the government and UNDP, allowed us to identify, understand, and prioritize shared challenges we face in Paraguay. As a result of this process, we identified three frontier challenges that have shaped our actions over the past five years.
Formalization of employment and business innovation
With 80% of Paraguay’s economy driven by informal micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), formalization and business innovation have become key priorities in addressing national challenges.
Within this challenge, AccLabPY has undertaken exploratory activities such as conducting Censuses in the Garment Sector, and implementing experimental interventions like the Local Program and Digital Skills Initiative.
In collaboration with the Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security (MTESS), the Participatory Laboratory for Employment Formalization carried out three experimental interventions: (1) an experimental rights-based training program for the construction sector that involved 281 workers, (2) a pilot of a personalized counseling service to employers of paid domestic work that reached 151 employers, and (3) an experimental intervention to improve the productivity of 20 garment workshops in the city of Yaguarón, organized in conjunction with the Wendá initiative.
Participatory Governance and Social Capital
Democracy, a hard-won achievement of the past three decades, is increasingly being undermined by a growing lack of public trust in institutions—a consequence of rising inequality and inadequate socioeconomic outcomes. Building trust through meaningful participation is essential for the construction and consolidation of democracy.
Growing inequality and declining trust in institutions threaten democratic stability. AccLabPY has explored social capital during the pandemic, mapped participatory governance practices, and launched experimental initiatives like Tavarandu.
Capacities for public and social innovation
Since public service is a core component of the State's capabilities, public innovation serves as a critical pillar for driving progress. Similarly, social innovation harnesses grassroots solutions developed by communities, transforming them into actionable frameworks that catalyze development.
Within the Capacities for Innovation challenge, AccLabPY has spearheaded experimental activities and interventions, including the Moirũ Community Innovation Challenge and the Public Innovators Program.
Reflections on R&D in Sustainable Development over the past 5 years
The frontier challenges guided our learning cycles throughout these 5 years of the Accelerator Lab. From these learning cycles and the different activities developed during these years, we can synthesize the following reflections on the experience of doing R&D+i for sustainable development:
The Centrality and Necessity of a People- and Planet-Centered Ethic
The type of R&D we do is fundamentally applied. For us, it is action-research: knowledge is generated as we act on the system to drive its development. In the process, we have learned that knowledge mobilizes action best when it closely involves those concerned, the people who face development challenges on a daily basis. Our action-research must necessarily be participatory and focused on the reality of people and their environment. This has become an ethical principle of our practice, and the reason why approaches such as human-centered design or collective intelligence are our preferred tools of choice.
One example of how we applied this ethic was during the learning cycle on Inclusive Recycling. Recognizing recycling as a collective action challenge, we began the process by focusing on the concrete, day-to-day experiences of grassroots recyclers in the San Francisco neighborhood of Asunción. These individual experiences, when viewed collectively, highlighted the need to strengthen the Association of Waste Pickers of Barrio San Francisco (the action) while collaboratively mapping their daily collection routes and experiences (the research).
The pilot for home-based differentiated waste collection, Mi Barrio Sin Residuos (My Neighborhood Without Waste), emerged in a context where the research findings (routes and daily routines) informed the pilot’s design. Simultaneously, the ongoing capacity-building of the Association through the action positioned the recyclers to better leverage the opportunities provided by the pilot and to address the challenges it presented.
The Tensions Between Rigor and Feasibility Enrich
In trying to measure the impact of a differentiated collection pilot service, the Wendá food voucher pilot, the impact evaluation of the Local Program or the collection of pilots of the Public Innovators Program, we learned that the tension between rigor and feasibility is unavoidable, but also enriching. Everything we do at the Lab requires a balancing act between the conditions necessary to generate evidence and the conditions necessary to generate impact. The tension between learning and action, between research and innovation, and between design and implementation.
Navigating these tensions is ultimately a creative exercise guided by what we might call Feasible Rigor: generating robust evidence within the constraints of real-world development actions. The degree to which we can integrate rigorous research and impact evaluation methodologies into development interventions depends on the level of control we have over the design and implementation of the intervention. Specifically, our ability to control (1) the research question, (2) the hypothesis, (3) the strategy for generating or collecting data, and (4) the data analysis (Figure 5) determines the level of flexibility required in balancing rigor with feasibility.
At times, we had significant control over all four components, allowing us to conduct the R&D with the level of rigor we aimed for—such as in the case of the food stamps program, where we were able to fully design each component alongside the team. In other instances, our control was more limited, and we had to adapt the R&D to the circumstances. This was the case with the recycling pilot, where the process of recruiting and selecting participating households was not entirely within our control. As a result, the design of the four components—particularly the hypothesis and data strategy—was shaped by the households invited to participate in the pilot.
The kitchen brings out its best dishes when it is open and all cooks are peers.
At AccLabPY, the "kitchen" serves as the essential workspace where key decisions are made regarding the management and execution of each cycle. Whether it’s a WhatsApp or Telegram group, a shared Google Drive folder, an online document, or the weekly check-in meeting, the Lab's kitchen has taken on various forms and practices over the years. Despite these variations, its consistent, day-to-day challenge has been to foster maximum transparency and collaboration without sacrificing agility. This applies not only to our internal team but also to extended teams involving public institutions, strategic partners from civil society and the private sector, consultants, specialists, and occasionally, volunteers.
All tensions originate and are managed in the kitchen, and navigating them can be complex—especially in a context involving institutional relationships and strategic decisions that may not always align with our perspectives. We've learned that each case is unique, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to collaboration and relationship management. However, a fundamental working principle is to consistently strive for the highest possible level of transparency and participation from our strategic allies in the kitchen.
One way to foster this is by envisioning the kitchen as an open space—a space that promotes transparency, where progress is continuously visible. In this kitchen, every team member is a peer, working collaboratively and horizontally in an environment with clearly defined roles and expectations, yet where no task is considered beneath anyone. While we strive to embody this ideal, it can be challenging to ensure that every team member fully experiences this openness and horizontal structure.
Learning is first emergent, and then intentional.
We have learned much, but there is still much more to uncover. Over the years, we have observed that our work often begins as a portfolio of emergent experiments before transitioning into one that is intentional and strategically designed. For this shift to happen—and for the narrative of learning to evolve into a coherent and intentional portfolio—it is essential to return the learning to those who made it possible through their stories.
Throughout these years, working out loud has been a core principle of our practice. However, we have learned that it is particularly important to engage with the people who contributed their time and data to each cycle. Sharing the evidence with those directly involved serves as the hinge that connects cycles and enables us to build new actions.
Looking back, we can now trace the path we have traveled and recognize a coherent and systematic narrative of learning, marked by moments of socialization that disseminated key insights to catalyze new actions. While the themes that have guided our work are numerous, and the collective knowledge we have shared is extensive, it remains challenging to pinpoint a single emblematic lesson. What is clear, however, is that the journey of learning is far from over.
Next steps: R&D capacities for innovation
After five years of learning, the Accelerator Labs Network is entering a new phase—the "next generation of UNDP Labs." In this stage, its practices and tools are being transformed into “Public Goods of Innovation” to build, deliver, and enhance global R&D capacities for addressing sustainable development challenges (Achim Steiner, UNDP Global Administrator).
This evolving, global library of practices is built on the collective knowledge of over 90 Labs, synthesized through a role-based codification process known as the Codification Fest. During this process, mappers, explorers, and experimenters shared and analyzed their methodologies, laying the groundwork for the upcoming R&D+i Starter’s Guide and R&D+i Archive. Both resources will be publicly accessible and designed for those looking to begin their journey in the field of research and development for sustainable development.
In addition to the codification process for sharing best practices, the network is shaping three strategic R&D agendas, each addressed through a global mission-driven approach. These agendas prioritize development challenges in (1) Financial Inclusion, (2) Food Systems, and (3) Circular Economy.
The selection of these themes stems from a global co-creation process, beginning with the lessons and experiences shared by each lab and culminating in three global retreats focused on reflection and co-design—known as the R&D Raves. During these retreats, network members collaboratively prioritized key themes and outlined concrete actions for each challenge.
Next steps
2025 marks a new chapter for the Global Labs Network and for AccLabPY. Revisiting the sensemaking activities from five years ago, we conducted new workshops focused on listening, analysis, and collective reflection with stakeholders from the public, community, private, and cooperative sectors.
Over 80 people joined us in building this path together by participating in one of the workshops, Five Years of Acceleration: Transforming Challenges into Learnings. Together, we assessed the road ahead and collectively envisioned the future, by focusing on the questions that are yet to be answered to achieve the sustainable development of our communities and territories.
In our next blog, we will share the outcomes of these workshops and how they contributed to shaping the new learning challenges for AccLabPY.
*In addition to the people who are now part of the team, each learning process of this journey was possible thanks to a long list of colleagues who at some point were part of a “kitchen” of the Lab. Some of them within the team itself, others from allied institutions:
Gustavo Setrini, Claudia Montanía, Georgina Hernández, Fernando Ovando, Tanya Mongelós, Camila González Paciello, Andrea Ronnebeck, Denise Genit, Sady Sarquis, Marisol Jara, Adriana Closs, Mirtha Rodríguez, Eva Torales, Carmen Gauto, Gerthie Raúl Spiess, Juan Carlos Arias, Sandra González, Ticiana Hoisel, Adriana Chaparro, Marjolaine Cotê, Jorge Garicoche, Christian Escobar, Maurizio Elizeche, Romina Da Re, Oscar Sánchez, Luis Lane, Claudia Spinzi, Félix Ayala, Olga Caballero, Fernando Maidana, Alma Figueredo, Pedro Pérez, Katia Gorostiaga, Amado Díaz (TRP), Romilio González (CYP), Marta Canese (CYP), Alberto Brítez (CYP), Francisco Riera (Equilibrium), Benjamín Boccia (Equilibrium), Pauli Maricevich (Equilibrium), Juan Carlos Pane (Colmena), Marie Claire Burt (Colmena), Karuna Parwani (Colmena), Rodrigo Rojas (Sinergia Positiva), Christian Cornejo, Hernán Melgarejo, Natalia Santos, Matías Canese (Mentu), Carla Linares (Mentu), Giovanna Guggiari (Mentu), Jorge Hraste, Juan Carlos Cristaldo (Exponencial), Guillermo Brítez (Exponencial), Lorena Ferreira (Nauta), Verónica Torres (Nauta), Teresa Ávalos (Nauta), Cynthia González (E+E), Sebastián Bruno, Daniel Aldrich (Northeastern University), Timothy Fraser (Northeastern University), Courtney Pagetan (Northeastern University), Julio Paciello (CDS), Beatriz Vierci (CDS), Celeste Pereira, Carolina González Torres, Mirtha Roa, Estefanie Proforuk (Tokorre), Mateo Servent, Alejandra González (Codeando Mexico), Óscar Hernández (Codeando Mexico), Vanessa Cañete (Girls Code/Wildom), Maximiliano Báez (Girls Code/Wildom), José Medina (CDO), Alena Klatte (CDO), Gloria Gerhardt (SIPW), Sharif Kazemi (SIPA), Akmaral Bekbossynova (SIPA), Antonella Bandiera, Juan Heilborn (Memética), Carol Thiede (Memética), Sonia Moura (Memética), Guadalupe Lobo (Memética), Camila Jazmín Mas (Memética), Ana Lucía Giménez (ENI/MITIC), Luis Rojas (ENI/MITIC), Yenny Marín (CONACYT), Jazmín Gustale (ENI), Rodrigo Villamayor (ENI/MITIC), Melinna Vázquez (MITIC), Gustavo Ortiz (MITIC), Mónica Recalde (MTESS), Juan Paredes (MIC), Angel Ayala (MIC), Andrea Velázquez (Pilar), David Martínez (UNI), Carmen Bogado (UNI), Teresa Regis (UNI), Nelly Monges (UNI), Yolanda Portillo (UNI), Emilio Aquino (UNA), Henry Chavez (UNAE), Ivonne Vargas (UNAE), Yanina Gerhard (UNAE).
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