June 2017: The SDG Lab the UN Office at Geneva (UNOG) was publicly launched on 1 June 2017, at an event that highlighted what the “indivisibility” of the SDGs means in practice, with discussions assessing the linkages between two SDGs – gender (SDG 5) and industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9). The SDG Lab, which began operations at UNOG in January 2017, serves a multi-stakeholder community of actors in and outside Geneva.

Situated in the Office of the Director General at UNOG, the SDG Lab encourages partnerships, informs policy, and influences practice and action surrounding the SDGs. The goal of the SDG Lab is to identify strategic opportunities to maximize initiatives supporting the implementation of the SDGs and to foster strong relationships between actors in Geneva and beyond.

The SDG Lab has partnered with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) to co-convene a group of over 80 organizations, referred to as the Geneva 2030 Ecosystem. This group is comprised of representatives from UN organizations, NGOs, academic institutions, private sector entities and social entrepreneurs. The Geneva 2030 Ecosystem meets approximately once every three months to create a common vision for how Geneva can support implementation of the SDGs at the national and international level. The group also exchanges information about their individual initiatives to find potential areas of synergy for collaboration and runs joint innovation exercises to encourage new approaches to policy and practice. [SDG Lab] [Geneva 2030 Ecosystem ] [Innovation Sprint]