Innovation Working Group Action Plan In BriefJan. 31, 2018

Working Group PurposeThe working group supports new frameworks and tools for navigating innovation to have transformative impacts in ways that helps us achieve the SDGs. The group will function as a broker and enabler for those who are working on innovations and transformation and accelerates their alignment as an ecosystem of change-makers.

The Innovation Challenge for Transformation and the SDGsInnovation may or may not be in service of transformation to sustainability and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris agreement. It depends both upon the nature of the innovation and how it is implemented. There are many technological and social innovations that are introduced with good intentions to solve the global challenges that humanity is facing but often they have unintended, unexpected negative consequences. This include innovations for food security such as new aquaculture methods and energy such as biofuels that are causing major ecological and social destruction (including biodiversity loss and land grabbing) as they are implemented across the world. Therefore, in order for it to be useful in the context of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals the concept of innovation has to be reframed.

The thinking behind the SDGs and its focus on linked social and ecological interactions, acknowledging the humanity is an integral part and fully dependent on functioning ecosystems can work as a framework for understanding the broader impact of innovations. With the introduction of suitable systems thinking models they can provide a framework for addressing the

interconnectedness between technological, social and ecological systems. An example of this approach developed by a member of the group is the World Systems Model (figure 1) used as structure for a strategy game that challenges people to engage in joined up thinking, seek synergies and avoid unintended consequences.1 Such models can help provide a critical, holistic perspective on the

innovations that are put forward, such as IT and digitalization. They can help generate solutions that are real breakthroughs in the way that they help us achieve integrated solutions that support human well-being as well as planetary health.

In summary, some of the key challenges with innovations for sustainability include:

Innovations are still addressed with a technological focus Current innovation are often adaptive instead of disruptive, meaning that they have very little

systemic impact Innovation (especially in development context) are not inclusive but often generated externally

1 See www.iffpraxis.com/world-game and Attachment 1 below1

Note to Action PlanThis document briefly describes the action plan of the Innovation Working Group of the SDG Transformations Forum. The plan was developed through a four-month process of discussion led by the Group’s Stewardship Team with other participants. Nevertheless, it should be treated as a “living document” and comments are most welcome. Moreover, fundamental to the plan is the understanding that there are many people and initiatives already trying to address many of its elements, and we want to connect them to realize the scale of effort necessary to make this a truly collaborative effort.

The plan is organized around

to where the problem is and then transferred in a top-down, global north to south fashion Innovations are often framed as solutions to reduce the negative impacts of human activities, not

as something that can help humans become appositive force on the planet

The Plan for Addressing Innovation for Transformation and the SDGsIn the context of reframing innovation for achieving the SDGs, key questions that need to be addressed are:

1. Content – How can technological and social innovations support regenerative development that can help us achieve the SDGs (including rewiring social-ecological systems)?

2. Scaling – How do innovations lead to large-scale, systemic and transformative change? How do we understand patterns of spread and diffusion and scaling (including disruptive vs. adaptive)?

3. Agency – What capacities, strategies, and skills are needed to move innovations to have transformative impact and generate integrated solutions to linked, complex problems (including distributed agency and system entrepreneurship as well as exclusion/inclusion)?

1) Innovation System AnalysisBased on these three components, the innovation group of the SDG Forum will synthesize the current understanding of innovations for sustainability and develop a framework that can help navigate innovations in order to have transformative impact and achieve the SDGs. The framework includes:

1) First component of the analysis is to map ongoing innovations for sustainability in a specific problem domain and to evaluate what kind of innovation that is in focus and how it help rewire the current systems. For example, is it framed as a solution that can help reduce the negative impact of human action or a (re)generative solution that can help humans become a positive force on the planet? This also includes mapping “who” is involved.

As mentioned earlier the World Systems model can be used to think about synergies and ways to find integrated solutions to connected problems. Below, figure 2 shows how the SDGs correlate with the World System Model.

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Figure 1 – The World Systems Model for Integrative Strategising

Figure 1 – The World Systems Model for Integrative Strategising

2) Second component of the analysis involves issues of scaling. Many of the problems addressed by the SDG are pressing and requires rapid actions. A framework of seven strategies for accelerating change can be used to understand the speed of change. These steps are: 1) constant reframing of problem, 2) scaling out to take innovation and quickly put it in many more places, 3) scaling up with policy makers, 4) scaling deep is getting to hearts and minds, 5) apply holistically and embracing unintended outcomes, 6) learning and have rapid feedback, and 7) identifying particular barriers and address them.

In this context, it is also important to develop ways of understanding the systemic impact of the innovations. In order to achieve the SDGs, transformations involve a fundamental change in human and environmental interactions and feedbacks. A challenge in this regard is how to scale in ways that the innovation continues to have a positive impact as it is scaled (to avoid the biofuel phenomena mentioned earlier). A framework of five components that needs to be challenged and changed can be used to understand the transformative impact of innovations. These components are: (1) roles and routines; (2) power structures; (3) relations among groups and networks; (4) resource flows; and (5) meaning and values (and culture) across different opportunities and scales.

3) Third component of the analysis involves issues of agency, including assessments of the networks established with change-makers of the system? What are the gaps? What are the tools for establishing safe spaces for new collaborations? This step also involves assessing the capacities for transformative change as well as the opportunity context that the agents operate within. This includes assessing capacities needed in each phase of transformative change - 1) preparing the system for change, 2) navigating the transition, and 3) building resilience of the new system configuration.

3Figure 2 The correlation between the SDGs and the World System Model.Figure 2 The correlation between the SDGs and the World System Model.Figure 2 The correlation between the SDGs and the World System Model.

2) ConnectingThe Innovation Group will connect actors and change makers working within a certain problem domains, such as water governance in the Sahel region or topical area such as blockchain. This comprises:

Connecting actors to solve problem and co-produce solutions by a designed and facilitated process, using methods such and the Social Innovation Labs

Providing tools such as World System Model to understand social-ecological system interactions and joint process of systems mapping and sense-making

Building capacity of actors to create ecosystems of change makers that can have transformative impact

3) Radical Learning and ActingThe Innovation group provides a space to apply complex systems thinking on innovation that can contribute to transformations to sustainability. This will include:

Reframing innovation in the context of the SDGs and pursuing integrated solutions to linked social-ecological problems

Challenging and changing the current assumptions of how innovation have impact, especially in regards to scaling up, out and deep and accelerating change

Learning how to build networks (ecosystems) of change agents that span regions, sectors and problem domains for new, effective collaborations for planetary and social sustainability.

The Case Of Blockchain (an illustrative example of how to use the framework)Blockchain is a technology that is rapidly developing as a tool to solve many of the pressing issues that humanity is facing. So far it has been mostly used in finance but it is rapidly spreading to other areas in the form of crypto governance and to any multi-step transaction where traceability and visibility is required, for example food supply chains (to manage and sign contracts and audit product provenance) and democracy (elections/voting platforms). Blockchain is more than a technological innovation and points to the importance of recognizing innovation as a broader social process, not simply a technological one. Many scholars and practitioners argue that blockchain has the potential to fundamentally change many of our systems that govern our societies and interactions with the Earth’s ecosystems, including areas addressed by the SDGs.

In the context of the analytical framework and co-learning process described above the blockchain technology could be worshopped as follows:

Mapping of blockchain initiatives. To understand how blockchain technologies are helping to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, we will conduct a cross-sector research exercise to identify which blockchain applications are relevant to the implementation of each goal. The exercise will map blockchain applications by organisational type (company, NGO, academia, etc), geographic scope of operations, scale of operations, SDG area of relevance, application status (being designed, implemented, etc). Each initiative will have its own succinct description and a link to further information. The initiatives will be sortable and searchable in database format.

In the next step, the key actor and change-makers identified in the previous step are brought together into a co-learning space. Models such as the World Systems Model can be used in collaborative processes to assess the initiatives in regards to the linkages between different Global Sustainability Goals. This include identifying known or unknown links between them and how solving one problem and/or achieving one of the goals can have negative effects on other goals, but also how the opposite could be true where you have synergies and generative effects.

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Following on this, a collaborative assessment of what state of scaling these initiatives are in (at the fringe or on the way of creating a new mainstream) and their transformative impact (or lack of). For example in the context of community-led renewable energy projects: How does blockchain enable decentralization of products and services? Community grid projects, renewable energy. How can blockchain better connect consumers and artisan producers? (with other technologies). The framework of the three horizons (3H) could be used to understand how innovations are taken up by societies. For example innovation as horizon 2 where blockchain is taken up by banks and finance, and 2+ in which it is taken up by different groups (such as innovation in Scotland around sustainable energy).

The last step involves assessing the opportunity context that the blockchain initiatives are in and the capacities needed for navigating innovation processes. This includes capacities to loosen up the existing system and prepare the system for change, which in turn includes creating niches of new ideas and experimenting with new system configurations. Such process of rewiring the system include creating new relationships between system agents but also between people and the ecosystems, which is key to achieving sustainability. Blockchain initiatives would also be analyzed in regard to how they challenge and change: (1) roles and routines; (2) power structures; (3) relations among groups and networks; (4) resource flows; and (5) meaning and values (and culture) across different opportunities and scales.

The outcome of such a designed and facilitated co-production process would be prototype solutions that can be tested in the real world, monitored and evaluated, and then use that information to further refine them, in a collaborative process, and test them again.

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