SDGlab is as innovative framework towards effectively implementing and scale up the 2030 Agenda in Brazil. It promotes cooperation among governments, civil society, academia and private sector. During two days, we connect leaders and community members so they can jointly find solutions and build networks to make the SDGs a reality. The work starts before the actual meeting, with a comprehensive diagnosis of the problem to be solved. The lab itself starts with an immersion on the 2030 Agenda before the problem is explored through its multiple dimensions. Since 2017, we have run 10 labs with impacts in different areas.

Through the SDGlab, Agenda Pública has developed an innovative model for building responses to wicked problems. With a dynamics that promote immersion of the participants, the SDGlab activities lead to solutions that go beyond the traditional ones. SDGlab´s main pillars are collaboration through an opportunity for all sectors of society to gather on creating initiatives that bring real progress and scale up the 2030 Agenda in Brazil. Innovation – an experience based on moments of inspiration and overcoming challenges through a spirit of cooperation, keeping both feet on the ground and hands-on. And, of course, we have action. We seek problem-solving; real challenges requires concrete solutions, an opportunity to engage multiple stakeholders and building networks, developing initiatives that should be incubated, registered, implemented and shared around the world.


We know that implementing planning is one of the main challenges of such initiatives and to overcome this challenge the SDGlab works with the Fast Impact Actions (FIA), with low complexity and short-term results, easy implementation and available resources, followed by medium and long-term action plans. The implementation of the participant`s proposals is based on the arrangements organized within the SDGlab and the group involved determines the next steps to follow-up and monitor the actions. After the lab we also run two or three workshops, using practical cases to work collaboratively with the lab participants, strengthening the group and the arrangement made for solving the problem. The use of practical cases as a didactic tool, introduce the group to successful and unsuccessful experiences and, from them, they can construct solutions pertinent to different contexts. Those workshops brings to light the challenges faced by other agents, city halls, companies and organizations so that they subsidize the teams responsible for planning and implementation in a given context, inspiring the group.

The lab connects leaders from governments, civil society, academia and private sector, from various economic and political segments to make sure that our methodology is participative, inclusive and collaborative to work the sustainable development goals in an integrated way. For that, it is necessary to define the situation-problem and verify which of the SDGs will be prioritized, considering the community perspective. For that reason, we also invite community members to participate in the problems resolution through local knowledge and practices in a very transformative and empathic way. They also contribute with testimonials for the diagnosis we elaborate before the lab.

How to run SDGlab step by step:

Step 1 • Agreements and definition of the laboratory theme/related SDG (30 days). The first arrangement for the SDGlab to happen is to define a theme for the lab. It usually is defined according to a specific theme Agenda Pública wants to address in a certain location. It can also be defined by a partnership, as the 5 labs we will run in a project financed by UNPD in Piauí Estate.

Step 2 • Consolidated report of the problem situation and identification of stakeholders (30-45 days); and • Mobilization of participants and preparation of the lab (15 days); Here we collect data and testimonials to elaborate a comprehensive diagnosis of the problem that need to be addressed. Once it is ready, we make sure all the participants receive their copies in time and we also provide guidelines to participate of the lab

Step 3 • Execution of ODSlab (2 days); and • Presentation of lab report: 30 days after the lab; the lab starts with an immersion on the 2030 Agenda and after that the participants explore the problem through its multiple dimensions. We conduct the lab so they group produce an action plan with Fast Impact Actions, followed by medium and long-term impact actions. All the experience is registered in writing for a report and in video and pictures, for records.

Step 4 • Follow-up: three practical cases workshops within one year after the lab. The monitoring mechanisms Agenda Pública created to follow-up the labs results and impacts is the practical cases workshops. They are also designed to help the implementation of the action plan, by keeping the network engaged and motivated for the implementation of the solution they created, reaching a collective impact. The practical cases workshops are 4 hours long each and the first should happen during one ear after the lab.

The 17 SDGs, which propose the creation of multisectoral partnerships in order to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda, was an inspiration for Agenda Pública to create an effective methodology to an intersectoral approach to public challenges of various natures. An integral addressment of public problems is critical, especially given the difficulty that often characterize the coordination of efforts within their own governments and the collaboration among different sectors of society.

The lab first experiences took place between February and April 2017, in Sao Paulo and Brasilia. So far, 10 ODSlab have been developed. Transparency has increased in Manaus, north of Brazil, through open government partnership, publishing reports and the creation of a municipal ombudsman. A mobility plan focus on people and accessibility was created in Piracicaba, São Paulo, southeast of Brazil. In Macapá, north of Brazil, only 5% of the territory had properly sewage infrastructure and 40% of plumbing water in 2014. We changed that scenario through campaigns and elaborating strategies that helped the municipality to raise money to implement a sanitation plan. Also, the socioeconomic integration of refugees in the state of São Paulo was an important impact. We did that through the centralization of public services that helps the validation of documents, access to Portuguese classes and access to work opportunities connecting NGOs that have expertise with that specific theme. For more details, please visit the SDGlab`s website (the link is available on Other sources of information section).

One of the SDGlab’s immediate appeals is the invitation to reflect on the Fast Impact Actions (FIA), capable of gathering public, private and civil society initiatives for important improvements for society. The FIA tend to be of low complexity, which makes it possible to achieve short-term results. That way, they engage, motivate and create the necessary confidence to invest in longer-term, higher-cost policies, contributing for the plan`s integral implementation.

The increased satisfaction of the public user, diversification of the local economy, growth of transparency indicators, besides a participatory evaluation with all involved, with management and participation are the longer term results of the labs already realized. The SDGlab’s editions have shown that the lab is effective in promoting a dialogue between stakeholders from various economic and political segments, in developing solutions to real public problems, and in establishing partnerships and institutional models of cooperation that is a differential impact that contributes directly to leave no-one behind.

Enabling this experience depends on partnerships established between Agenda Pública and institutions/organizations from all sectors – corporations, governments and civil society. So far, all the editions of the SDGlab have been made in partnership with a financing partner or with institutional funds from Agenda Pública. The SDGs require an integrated approach, the establishment of commitments, the investment of resources, ample supervision, as well as interdependent action between sectors of society. The SDGlab, as well, is built from partnerships. Institutions from all sectors are welcome to contact us if interested in facilitating its implementation in their own region. If the proposing institution does not have resources available to promote the lab, we can jointly find alternatives to make it viable. As in the lab itself, partnerships to make it happen are built so that the solutions found can be described and properly implemented.

Public problems are complex and often dynamicas well, changing over time – and it is often impossible to find definitive answers. Solutions to complex problems should not be identified as "right" or "wrong," but as "more" or "less effective." Some assumptions are fundamental to address this kind of challenge:
1) Holistic and integral addressment
2) Flexible and innovative approaches
3) Ability to work alongside various institutions
4) Creation of accountability models
5) Effective engagement of stakeholders and citizens with the awareness of
the problem and in the creation and implementation of solutions
6) Development of new skills
7) Deepening of knowledge regarding behavioral changes
8) Setting up clear strategies and focus
9) Tolerance for uncertainty and openness for long-term projects
The SDGlab relies on these nine items in order to seek solutions to wicked problems according to the 2030 Agenda and offers a consistent methodology to improve the logic of public management and foster partnerships with the private and the third sectors.
The costs for running a lab are mainly Human resources: people with ability to conduct interviews and make research to elaborate the comprehensive diagnosis, people with facilitation skills and knowledge of the 2030 Agenda to conduct the lab following the lab’s methodology. There is also costs related to registering the lab (video and report) and logistics, like transport, coffe-break, telephone calls and office supplies.
Agenda Pública is committed to the creation, dissemination and implementation of the sustainable development agendas in Brazil. It was a highly relevant organization in the process of implementing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), precursors of the SDGs, thus having accumulated a solid repertoire of experiences aimed at improving municipal public policies in pursuit of ambitions goals. We are looking forward to taking the SDGlab throughout the country.
The SDGlab is adaptable to the most varied realities, allowing complex problems of any nature to be addressed from this perspective

The SDGlab methodology, studied and developed by the Agenda Pública, is based on principles of open innovation, theory of change and models of institutional arrangements, with the participation of multiple stakeholders: governments, civil society, academia and business sector.

The SDGlab demonstrates that it is possible to solve wicked problems, if the starting point is a qualified dialogue between the key actors in each situation and that partnerships between the public and private sectors and civil society are generated and cultivated based on models of governance and appropriate strategies for incentives and accountability.

The methodology encourages the multiplicity of perspectives to a holistic treatment of the challenges within 2030 Agenda. The work is carried out alongside the formalization of commitments, pacts and partnerships. That way, it is possible to collectively develop consensual and, therefore, much more effective action plans. Through the SDGlab, Agenda Pública has
developed an innovative model for building responses to public problems. With the adoption
of dynamics that promote an immersion of the participants, the SDGlab activities lead to solutions that go beyond the more traditional, sometimes fragmented ones, which are usually under the responsibility of a single protagonist, and that are no longer satisfactory. Concrete results can be measured by the quality of the discussions, the capacity to engage the key actors involved, the solutions presented and the action plans implementation.

SDGlab`s intersectoral approach to public challenges shows that when you combine: (i) cooperation between actors in the public and private sectors; (ii) integrated actions and concrete public policies; (iii) multidisciplinary dialogue; (iv) creation of Partnerships; (v) viable Solutions; (vi) institutional arrangements for sustainable development, we get closer to effectively implementing and scale up the 2030 Agenda in Brazil.

SDGlab website:
https://odslab.org.br/home-en-2

Video:

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Folder:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1H4Ty2afPFOHF9J2A8kjJkPu86MOdFeS4/view?usp=sharing

Articles:

https://www.agendapublica.org.br/odslab-insercao-socioeconomica-de-refugiados-no-estado-de-sao-paulo/

http://www.estrategiaods.org.br/brasil-busca-resolver-problemas-complexos-com-o-novo-odslab/

https://www.agendapublica.org.br/odslab/

http://ecam.org.br/noticias-e-editais/noticias/conferencia-ethos-e-odslab-contou-com-reforco-dos-trabalhos-da-ecam-para-o-desenvolvimento-economico-da-amazonia/

https://brazilfoundation.org/encontro-discute-solucoes-para-implementacao-dos-objetivos-do-desenvolvimento-sustentavel-no-brasil/?lang=pt-br