Eighteen UN country offices around the world have begun taking action on priorities raised during national consultations on the post-2015 agenda, with the support of micro-grants from the UN Development Programme's (UNDP) Knowledge, Innovation and Capacity Group and the Post-2015 Team.
The UNDP Teamworks website hosted a webinar, ‘Citizen driven innovation in the post-2015 Agenda,' which showcased work from seven country offices on: youth entrepreneurship and employment; social exclusion and disabilities; and volunteerism, among others.
7 May 2014: Eighteen UN country offices around the world have begun taking action on priorities raised during national consultations on the post-2015 agenda, with the support of micro-grants from the UN Development Programme’s (UNDP) Knowledge, Innovation and Capacity Group and the Post-2015 Team. The UNDP Teamworks website hosted a webinar, titled ‘Citizen driven innovation in the post-2015 Agenda,’ which showcased work from seven country offices on, inter alia: youth entrepreneurship and employment; social exclusion and disabilities; and volunteerism.
Gina Lucarelli, UNDP, introduced the micro-grant process during the webinar, describing the micro-grants as an experiment to engage with individuals to leverage specific action on one priority that emerged during national consultations on the post-2015 agenda. She said the competitive grant process began in Eastern Europe and Central Asia and has spread globally. Participants from Albania, Belarus, El Salvador, Georgia, Jordan, Montenegro and Rwanda then presented the issues they addressed, their approaches and lessons learned on data sources and partnerships, among others. For instance, in Georgia, the Spot the Future Initiative has explored collaboration between governments and citizens, including engaging ‘female hacktivists’ who hack for social good and ‘guerilla gardening activists’ who promote volunteerism to plant trees and protect green areas.
In a post responding to the webinar, Gina Lucarelli summarizes some key messages and lessons learned from the presentations, including: “checking in with people” to inform development programming; engaging people during diagnosis or programme design; and allowing adequate time for prototyping. Drawing on presentations from Belarus and El Salvador, Lucarelli notes that participants emphasized the importance of complementing advocacy with innovation and citizen participation with technological innovation. UNDP plans to host a second webinar with additional micro-grant recipients. [Webinar] [UNDP Blog on Initiative] [UNDP Capacity Development Website]