Annex Country support platform for the Sustainable Development Goals: prototypes and pilots

Annex 4.

Country support platform for the Sustainable Development Goals: prototypes and pilots
This annex to the Strategic Plan, 2018-2021 presents existing initiatives that could serve as prototypes and scalable pilots for the country support platform with service lines at the cross section of the Sustainable Development Goals, innovation and innovative financing. While country support platforms are a new concept and have not been established formally in UNDP, several country offices have already started working innovatively and collaboratively, as illustrated by the following examples from Armenia, Cabo Verde, Dominican Republic, India, Pakistan, Republic of Moldova and Sudan. These outline ongoing, nationally-owned, multi-stakeholder and ‘whole-of-society’ approaches to the Goals supported by UNDP.
The diversity of these services reflects the ability and flexibility of UNDP in designing solutions that are highly tailored to specific national contexts, as a one-size-fits-all approach cannot effectively support national ambitions to achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda.
Armenia
In Armenia, UNDP, along with the United Nations system, facilitates three interlinked pillars that support Sustainable Development Goal acceleration: promote public sector innovation; provide a strong citizen interface; and leverage capital through impact investing, sourcing and testing of ideas, incubation, acceleration and support to scaling.

The Kolba Social Innovation Lab has been operating since 2015 and is now funded by the European Union. Kolba was the United Nations' first social innovation lab, a model now scaled up in several countries. The Lab’s aim is to address major social challenges in Armenia by creating both a diverse innovation community that gathers citizens' ideas and a space in which Armenia’s institutions can respond to and support those ideas. Kolba has incubated 40 start-ups, with concrete social impact within the Government, the civic sector and the market in Armenia. Kolba also organized the country’s first-ever innovation challenge aimed at civil servants within the Government (which has since been replicated in the Ministries of Justice and Education) and hosted the country’s first two ‘public sector innovation weeks’. Several innovative tools and methodologies have been pioneered and piloted in areas including foresight, big and open data and user research.

The Sustainable Development Goal Innovation Lab was initiated in 2017 as a partnership between the Prime Minister’s Office and the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) (with UNDP as lead) and will be the first of its kind at the national level. The lab builds on Kolba’s incubation work and will help develop actual Goal acceleration solutions for Armenia, focusing on complex cross-sectoral issues (working across ministries). At the core of the lab’s concept is a win-win approach that: (a) combines short-term wins with deep long-term vision; (b) creates a market for development, as the Goals reflect genuine needs; (c) helps to reduce the cost of governance (e.g., through behaviour design and big data); (d) utilizes ‘open source’ Sustainable Development Goal know-ware (learning about solutions across sectors and countries); and (e) leapfrogs by direct access to cutting-edge approaches. The lab is itself a flexible platform where different United Nations agencies can run behavioural experiments, prototype projects, visualize data to inform policy, among other things. The lab is also a training centre for ‘SDG Champions’ within the Government. In Armenia’s case, the lab will serve as an implementation mechanism for recommendations of the Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support (MAPS) mission.
The Impact Investment Vehicle, launched at the United Nations’ first-ever Impact Investment for Development Summit in Yerevan in March 2017, will promote: (a) social entrepreneurship as a long-term sustainable solution to addressing the Sustainable Development Goals with private funds; and (b) new financial mechanisms (e.g. outcome buying, social impact bonds) as a vehicle to shift government spending to outcome-driven investment mode, leveraging private capital for achieving public results. Kolba will serve as a source of start-up ideas for acceleration.
Cabo Verde
In Cabo Verde, the Resident Coordinator called on UNDP to respond to the Government's request for support in mainstreaming the Sustainable Development Goals into the national development planning process, and in strengthening monitoring and reporting on the Goals in a ‘Delivering as One’ environment.
Building on support provided by the United Nations, and in particular UNDP, in organizing a sub-regional conference on the Sustainable Development Goals in small island developing States and a national workshop on ‘Mainstreaming and Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in Cabo Verde’ at the request of the Government, national authorities expressed the need for further support in order to place the Goals at the centre of the development planning process in the coming years, from the design of the new national development plan to its implementation, monitoring and review.
Operating in a Delivering as One environment in the context of a joint UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF office, the Resident Coordinator requested UNDP to take the lead in providing technical assistance on mainstreaming the Goals into the national development planning process. UNDP supported the elaboration of a roadmap and the methodological tools for integration of the Goals, and facilitated capacity-building both with government actors and United Nations agencies. All relevant agencies participated in the preparation of the national plan and programmes, including on alignment with the Goals. In certain cases, additional work with national counterparts and line ministries on sectoral plans and strategies was undertaken by specific United Nations agencies; in this respect, UN Women is providing support to mainstreaming gender in the national plan as per the 2030 Agenda. The solution is funded through multiple funding sources, including regular resources from UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN-Women, pooled funding through the One Fund in Cabo Verde (Delivering Results Together Fund, UNDAF Innovation Fund) and bilateral contributions.
This coordinated United Nations support contributed to the alignment of the National Plan for Sustainable Development with the Sustainable Development Goals. The Government has since made further requests to the United Nations to strengthen monitoring and reporting on the Goals and develop a platform for financing for development and innovative models of aid effectiveness and partnerships.
The Dominican Republic
In the Dominican Republic, UNDP supports the work of the intersectoral and multi-stakeholder High- Level National Commission for Sustainable Development and leads the United Nations inter-agency coordination mechanism.
In 2016, the Government of the Dominican Republic established its High-Level National Commission for Sustainable Development. This intersectoral and multi stakeholder commission, composed of representatives of the private sector, civil society and line ministries, is led by the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development. UNDP works hand in hand with the commission's technical secretariat and with each of the five subcommittees (‘People’, ‘Planet’, ‘Prosperity’, ‘Institutional’ and ‘Indicators’) that deliver policy guidance for Sustainable Development Goal implementation.
To support the work of the high-level commission in a coordinated manner, the UNCT established an inter-agency Goal coordination mechanism, led by UNDP. Most of the ongoing initiatives are financed through government cost sharing, with some seed capital provided by the United Nations system.
The UNCT helped the commission to define a set of priorities for the 2030 Agenda, develop its workplan, define the subcommittees and undertake a rapid integrated analysis to assess the alignment between the National Development Strategy (2012-2030) and the Sustainable Development Goals. The five subcommittees are undertaking rapid work to elaborate workplans and identify Goal accelerators, and will be supported by a United Nations-led MAPS mission. The work of the subcommittees has enabled the Dominican Government to transition towards integrated public policies, using the clustering (‘combos’) methodology facilitated by UNDP. Government officials and members of subcommittees have been trained in tools and methodologies to analyse and implement integrated policies that embed the 2030 Agenda into public policies.
India
In India, UNDP supports national efforts at the central, state and district levels through a joint United Nations mechanism.
The Government of India has led an active process of nationalizing the Sustainable Development Goals since early 2016. Different governmental entities have been charged to coordinate national and subnational efforts, formulate a vision document and provide an indicative national monitoring framework. In support of these national efforts, the UNCT designed an innovative mechanism, the Sustainable Development Goal Implementation Facility. The facility draws on internal staff expertise and pooled funds from resident United Nations agencies, combined with support from appropriate external experts/organizations, to provide demand-driven, quality technical support to all three tiers of government: central ministries, state governments and local governments. Support is provided in the areas of: (a) capacity development; (b) integrated planning; (c) budgeting for outcomes; (d) data-driven decision-making; and (e) communication and advocacy. The UNCT support has helped develop a unique platform for the Goals that links the national, state and district levels and thereby lays the groundwork for achieving impact at scale.
At the national level, within the framework of the joint UNCT support to the Government, UNDP facilitated technical support on Goals related to energy, environment, inequalities and gender; the finalization of a draft list of national indicators and the development of a dashboard to enable data-driven decision-making. At state level, the United Nations facilitated demand-driven support to 13 states in developing roadmaps and vision documents based on the Sustainable Development Goal framework and extended specialized expertise in focus areas. In particular, UNDP is assisting Assam State with the establishment of a state-level centre for the Goals, exploring innovative financing options and setting up an Assam-UNDP Innovation Lab. At the district level, UNDP has collaborated with local governments and the roll-out of Goal-related planning tools in 250,000 local communities across India is underway.
The approach of the United Nations in India also involves partnering with other key stakeholders such as the private sector, civil society and elected representatives. A United Nations in India Business Forum has been established to jointly identify commercially viable partnerships between businesses, government, the United Nations and civil society organizations to accelerate progress towards the Goals.
Pakistan
In Pakistan, UNDP, with other United Nations agencies, provides support to the government-led Sustainable Development Goal support units working at national and subnational level to mainstream the Goals into policy interventions, address data gaps, mobilize and align public and private financing and enable innovation to accelerate progress.
At the request of the Federal Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform and of provincial planning and development departments, Sustainable Development Goal support units were established to provide an effective implementation platform for a coherent approach to supporting the Goals at national and subnational levels, with technical support from UNDP. The units ensure mainstreaming of the Goals into national and subnational policy interventions, data analysis for reporting and monitoring, mobilization and alignment of public and private financing and enabling of innovation to accelerate progress. The Government has committed to funding at least 50 per cent of costs of these units for the next four years.

A high-level National Coordination Committee comprising United Nations agencies, development partners, civil society representatives and government bodies is co-chaired by the Minister for Planning, Development and Reform and the Resident Coordinator. UNDP serves as technical secretariat and provides facilitation support to the committee, in addition to its substantive role on themes that cut across sectors and United Nations agencies.

The units have produced tangible results since January 2016. Federal and provincial multi-stakeholder coordination platforms have been established and a comprehensive report on the Sustainable Development Goal data ecosystem was produced. The Federal and three provincial Governments have mapped their development plans against Sustainable Development Goal targets to integrate the 2030 Agenda. The Punjab Government has allocated USD 50 million to the 10 poorest districts to accelerate progress on Goals 1 and 8. The federal unit is preparing a tool for developing the Sustainable Development Goal framework and a private sector engagement strategy. Federal and provincial Governments are considering establishing government innovation labs for accelerating implementation on priority Goals across different areas in both the public and non-public sectors.
Republic of Moldova
The UNDP country office is supporting the Moldovan Government in making the Sustainable Development Goals an integral part of the national development framework by giving human-centred and innovative approaches central roles in all areas of the organisation’s work: policy advice; modernization of public services; development programmes; and country office operations.
The new national development strategy, ‘Moldova 2030’, prepared by the Government with the support of UNDP, brings the Sustainable Development Goals into national planning and reflects the integrated nature of the Goals.
The vision set out in the strategy benefited from key insights coming out of the Sustainable Development Goal complexity mapping exercise, which identified causal links driving or hindering progress towards the Goals, established linkages between goals and targets and identified potential development accelerators. This was complemented by a foresight exercise that examined societal challenges, encouraged non-linear thinking regarding the alternative futures that the country faces and brought human experience and a ‘what if’ analysis to the design process. The National Council for Sustainable Development, chaired by the Prime Minister, leads the process and coordinates integration of the Goals in national and sector-level policies. The Resident Coordinator participates in the Council which was established with the support of UNDP. To bring innovative tools and ideas, UNDP has been facilitating the acquisition of new skills by its own staff as well as government and non-government partners in the areas of system complexity mapping and dynamics, development foresight, design thinking and behavioural-based policy design.
In parallel, the Moldova Social Innovation Hub (MiLab) was established in 2014 as an innovation laboratory conceived to use design thinking, behavioural insights and crowd sourcing to help the Government design public policies and UNDP to help test iterative and experimental approaches. The MiLab itself is a product of a multi-stakeholder effort, as it was established jointly by UNDP, the State Chancellery and the E-Government Centre and was joined later by UN-Women.
Among other projects, through MiLab, UNDP Moldova has supported the National Bureau of Statistics to create and test a big data analysis tool for mapping population density in rural areas based on electricity consumption bills. In another project, police, citizens, local business owners and NGOs were brought together to rethink the spatial design of police stations. The model was replicated in the reengineering of a community police station, which will open in 2018.
Sudan
In Sudan, UNDP supports the efforts of the United Nations system to develop a more comprehensive framework for both humanitarian and development action by working with the Government to define and prioritize a national Sustainable Development Goals framework, which will also provide the basis for collective outcomes by the United Nations system.
In the context of accelerating constructive developments in the profile of Sudan’s engagement with the international community, as well as progress in peace negotiations and political dialogue processes, a high-level UNDP mission on the Sustainable Development Goals visited Sudan in late 2016. The mission focused on: (a) advocating about the importance of the Goals and ‘leave no one behind’ agenda and identifying potential ‘accelerators’ for advancing implementation of the Goals, with the Government and other key stakeholders; (b) bringing together UNCT members in planning and supporting the implementation of the Goals; and (c) assisting UNDP with inputs to its country programme formulation, using the framework of the Goals.
Complementary missions took place in May 2017 within the context of the humanitarian-development-peace nexus. A coordination review mission called for the development of collective outcomes and a financing mission examined mechanisms for financing these collective outcomes. The latter emphasized that monitoring and accountability for collective outcomes and financing could be improved, including by involving a broader group of stakeholders. Both missions highlighted the importance of an overall Sustainable Development Goal framework, and the need for a Vision 2030 statement that links humanitarian and development assistance to a long-term strategy for implementation of the Goals. The vision statement would not only ensure a focus on collective outcomes but also support a forward-looking agenda for the Goals within the changing country context.
A second MAPS mission in October 2017 was fielded to support the design of a framework to implement policies and financing for realizing the Goals and to design and implement effective partnerships between the Government, NGOs, donors and United Nations agencies to advance the 2030 Agenda. The mission supported national efforts to identify a set of Sudan-specific targets and indicators, linking them to the accelerators identified by the initial MAPS mission. This effort was linked into the financing discussion, which will be continued with ongoing work to identify budgeting and funding mechanisms for the Goals.