A group of children, some in white scarves, sitting on the ground with books, engaged in reading.

Social Innovation Platform

Credit: UNDP Pakistan/ Shahzad Ahmad

UNDP in Asia and the Pacific supports countries and communities in adopting innovative governance practices to enhance inclusive participation, meaningful co-creation, and public planning and budgeting at the local level. In 2019, UNDP's Bangkok Regional Hub, in collaboration with the Agirre Lehendakaria Center (ALC) and government partners in Asia-Pacific, initiated the Social Innovation Platform (SIP), a systems-based approach to facilitate sustainable local development. In its initial rollout, SIP supported over 500 villages and communities in Indonesia, Pakistan, and Thailand in advancing community-driven practices to foster inclusive and participatory village planning, local economic development, and sustainable local food systems. In 2024, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) partnered with UNDP in scaling the SIP initiative in Bangladesh, India, the Maldives, Nepal, and the Philippines to support localising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the Asia-Pacific region.

 

 

Social Innovation Platform (SIP) is an alternative approach to local development—one that incorporates diverse voices of the society, reflects local realities, leverages local wisdom, and puts communities at the center of development solutions. The SIP approach leverages real-time data, people-centred thinking, and portfolio design to tackle complex development challenges at the subnational level, whilst accelerating SDG localization. 

The strength of SIP lies in its ability to go beyond traditional vertical and one-off development interventions by breaking down silos across sectors, informing governance systems with innovative practices (Deep Listening, Sensemaking, Co-creation, Portfolio Design) to understand the deeper dynamics of development contexts, and facilitating new civic spaces for inclusive participation and collaboration between people, governments, and the private sector at all levels.

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SIP Highlights

SIP supported Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Laos, Maldives, and Bangladesh in developing integrated portfolios of solutions for a wide range of complex development challenges at subnational level including transforming local food systems, blue economy, sustainable tourism, air pollution, and local planning processes. 

Building new governance capabilities with SIP

To respond effectively to evolving societal needs, it is critical to embed participatory and forward-looking practices into governance systems—enabling governments to better listen to, engage with, and serve communities. These new governance capabilities go beyond traditional governance models that are often siloed, expert-driven, and fragmented. SIP supports this transformation by helping governments and communities institutionalize innovation through practices that foster inclusive public–private collaboration, promote integrated solutions, and drive lasting impact. From systems mapping and deep listening to sensemaking, co-creation, and portfolio design, SIP enables the emergence of governance systems that are more anticipatory, inclusive, and effective.

 

Core functions of SIP

SIP is in line with the UNDP Strategic Plan 2026-2029 to support integrated solutions for governance systemic transformations. Its core functions are:

  • Bring together a variety of stakeholders, including governments, communities, civil society and the business sector to;
  • Capture local community narratives and reveal in-depth needs, challenges and opportunities through systems mapping, deep listening, sensemaking and;
  • Collaborate on co-creating and prototyping interconnected solutions to address complex challenges at subnational level;
  • Explore new financing mechanisms to shift from funding traditional standalone projects to financing portfolios of integrated solutions.

 

SIP Country Highlights

 

SIP The Phillipines

In Malay, Aklan — gateway to the world-renowned Boracay Island — the ADB-UNDP SDG Localisation Initiative is enabling a bold shift: repositioning food systems not only as a source of local livelihood, but also as a driver of sustainable tourism and inclusive local economic development.

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Bald man leans over a table as others draw on a large colorful circular poster in a workshop.

SIP The Maldives

In Kulhudhuffushi, the most populous island in the northern Maldives, the city council and local community are co-creating public parks, knowledge centres, and mangrove platforms to ensure that local development meets the public's needs and fulfils people's aspirations for a prosperous and sustainable urban future.

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SIP Nepal

In Dhangadhi Sub-Metropolitan City (DSMC), SIP is reimagining the city's development trajectory through an ambitios and community-driven Green Transition Portfolio. Building on local commitments and growing urban demands, the initiative reflects a timely shift towards integrated, inclusive, and environmentally responsive urban development.

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a group of people standing next to a fence

SIP Indonesia

In Gorontalo and West Java, SIP helps accelerate sustainable village development by bringing together local stakeholders including communities, development and planning agencies, and SMEs to co-design integrated solutions for blue economy and sustainable tourism development.

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a group of people standing in front of a crowd posing for the camera

SIP Thailand

In the southern border provinces of Thailand, SIP helps improve local food systems by encouraging new forms of collaborations and supporting innovative activities between local farmers, fishermen, SMEs, municipalities and consumers. SIP gradually helps transform local food systems through sustainable production and consumption at the subnational level.

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a group of people posing for the camera

SIP Pakistan

In Gilgit-Baltistan, SIP helps propel socio-economic change in the remote Hushe Valley by fostering inclusive and participatory collaborations between communities, governments, and business sector to explore the potential of food economy and agro-tourism.
In Karachi, SIP has developed an AI platform to help local policy makers better understand community needs in informal urban settlements in real time.

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SIP Photo Library

A series of photos showing SIP in action around the region.
Credit: UNDP Pakistan/Shahzad Ahmad, UNDP Asia-Pacific/ Yi Zhang, and Kulhudhuffushi City Council.

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Contact Us

For more updates on Social Innovation Platform, please contact our programme analyst: 

Ms Yi Zhang yi.zhang@undp.org.