Unwanted loneliness is a subjective experience that arises when someone feels that their social connections do not meet their emotional and relational needs, generating distress, sadness and frustration. At the same time, it is a multidimensional social phenomenon, increasingly visible and widespread, affecting mainly older people and young people with negative impacts on their quality of life and public health, to the point that it is considered a new epidemic that requires prevention and treatment. In response, various actors— countries, local governments, civil society organizations, companies—have begun to implement specific initiatives to address it. 

The UNDP Accelerator Lab in Argentina, developed a solutions mapping that identified and systematized more than 100 initiatives with different approaches, interconnected entry points, methodologies and levels of intervention. This exercise sought to illuminate patterns, contribute to understanding how the issue is being addressed, and make clear that social connection and wellbeing—both intangible elements—should be public policy goals, given that there is no single solution for such a complex problem. From the mapping, six major lines of intervention emerged: gratifying activities and experiences, community networks, urban and housing interventions, digitalization and AI, private sector, and awareness-raising, showing that the key lies in combining approaches across different dimensions, testing and iterating, generating evidence, fostering a learning culture and, above all, strengthening the sense of community. From this solutions mapping, key recommendations for public policy emerge: recognize unwanted loneliness as a health and social development imperative, implement local and neighbourhood-level interventions that harness collective intelligence, integrate urban and digital design as facilitators of connection, and build a narrative that makes the issue visible, reduces stigma and encourages citizen participation.