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The SDG Commons is an archive of over 12K raw notes and reflections produced by the UNDP Accelerator Labs Network between 2019 and 2025.
It is also a multiuser platform developed by the UNDP Accelerator Labs Global Team to store and organize the documentation on their work.
The SDG Commons is open for use by anyone, inside or outside UNDP. If you want an account, request one here: https://sdg-innovation-commons.org/#contact.
The content is separated into three main categories:
- what we see
- what we test
- what we learn
What we see is a collection of over 6K notes on potential local solutions to development priorities and challenges. These cover a wide variety of topics, from traditional medicine to renewable energy solutions. The data are mostly unstructured (note pads), but are annotate with SDG tags, thematic area tags, locations (lat/long) and in some cases, with the gender of the solution holder or owner—the person who was identified to have either created the solution, or the one to be using it in the field.
What we test is a combination of 1.1K learning plans, with questions, potential partnership ecosystems, and background information on given development priorities and challenges; 600+ post-hoc, personal reflections on activities conducted in line with those learning plans; and 300+ experiment designs and results. The data are generally more structured than the notes under What we see, as they follow specific templates, which can be used to compare specific fields. In addition, the data are also annotated with SDG tags, thematic area tags, locations (admin 0 locations), methodology tags, and data source tags. The documentation of experiments also contain a number of other meta fields related to cost and scaling of results.
What we learn is a compilation of all the official UNDP knowledge products published by the Accelerator Labs Network. This mainly includes blog posts and reports. The data are unstructured and are not annotated.
The architecture of the platform is illustrated in the figure below.
