Innovation

Process

The Municipality of Montevideo and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) carried out a Deep Demo process focused on integrated waste management, with support from the Strategic Innovation Unit (SIU) and the Local Governance team of UNDP’s Asia-Pacific Regional Hub. Technical assistance was also provided by the Agirre Lehendakaria Center, a social innovation lab from the Basque Country. The process consisted of iterative stages of deep listening and systemic mapping, collective interpretation sessions, and co-creation of interventions with various institutions and actors. A portfolio of interventions was designed and implemented, impacting different points within the waste management system, based on diverse perspectives of the issue.

The Deep Demo process made it possible to design integrated solutions for waste management in Montevideo.

STAGE 1

MAPPING + LISTENING

Understanding reality to grasp complexity-and then revisiting that reality

The process began with mapping key actors and strategic initiatives in Montevideo related to waste management, including public administration at various levels, social enterprises, civil society organizations, collectives, businesses, and academic and educational institutions. This mapping helped conceptualize the system and identify projects already underway at different levels.

What can we learn from these leverage points and weaker connections?

Following the mapping, conversations were held with various actors to understand dynamics and perceptions through a deep listening strategy. Observing behaviors and analyzing community stories was key to identifying people’s real concerns and needs.

It’s essential to distinguish between public, hidden, and meta-narratives. Analyzing these contrasting views—even when they challenge existing data—allows us to address complex systems from a human-centered perspective.

The team gathered narratives from 97 people linked to the waste system, ensuring diversity in gender, age, and background, and covering a wide range of relevant thematic areas.

Guiding interview questions included:

What is happening right now in Montevideo regarding waste pickers?
What challenges do you see around the Felipe Cardoso landfill? How does this affect your daily life and that of local residents?
What opportunities do you see related to the landfill and waste pickers? Are current initiatives sufficient? What else could be done?
In the current situation, who wins and who loses?
How do you imagine a more sustainable Montevideo (economically, socially, environmentally)? What role should the city government play?

Other listening channels

Secondary sources were also reviewed -official reports, behavioral observations, photos, ethnography (including social media and daily news), analysis of objects, spaces, activities, and emotions- providing a more complete picture of existing actions and key stakeholders.

STAGE 2

COLLECTIVE INTERPRETATION

Deep listening led to a deeper understanding of reality and how different actors interact within Montevideo’s waste system. A systems map was created to visualize agents, relationships, and waste flows, and was used in collective interpretation sessions to foster conversation, contrast views, and analyze the current state.

STAGE 2

COLLECTIVE INTERPRETATION

Trigger questions

Does the system map reflect reality?
Does it represent the system’s complexity?
Are all relevant actors included?
What barriers and enablers can we identify?

The map helped facilitate collective interpretation and was adjusted after each session to better reflect the system. It helped surface barriers and opportunities, sparking new ideas and connections.

Ten sessions were held—some topic-specific (health, gender, sustainable jobs), others cross-cutting—providing spaces for sharing and validating insights and promoting shared narratives.

One key result was the identification of five opportunity areas, with Regulation and Financing as cross-cutting enablers.

Goals of the sessions

Generate ideas, learning, and shared meaning
Introduce new perspectives and adapt findings if needed
Strengthen the participant network
Validate the analysis
Ensure participants feel part of a democratized process
Identify opportunity areas

Representation of the 5 Opportunity Areas that emerged from the process, intersected by the catalysts: Regulation and Financing.

STAGE 3

EXPERIMENTATION PORTFOLIO

The listening process revealed multiple potential interventions across the system. These emerged without requiring initial consensus, creating a “controlled” experimental space where tensions between interventions could be processed fluidly.

Based on deep listening and collective interpretation sessions, a co-designed experimentation portfolio was implemented, including:

Activations

Ideas that were in draft form or had stalled, now activated by the process.

Redesigns

Ongoing initiatives that were adjusted based on feedback from listening and interpretation.

New Developments

Completely new initiatives that emerged from the process.

STAGE 4

EVOLUTIONARY EVALUATION

The evolutionary evaluation involved a dynamic and adaptive approach to assessing the project’s progress and outcomes throughout its implementation. This type of evaluation is especially crucial for initiatives addressing complex and systemic challenges, as in the case of Deep Demo.

STAGE 4

EVOLUTIONARY EVALUATION

What did this evaluation involve?

Continuous monitoring and feedback

Faced with complex challenges, new findings or changes in the environment often arise that can affect the project’s direction and effectiveness. Evolutionary evaluation enables a rapid response and adaptation to these circumstances, ensuring that the project remains aligned with its objectives and the changing context.

Adaptability to change and new discoveries

This approach promotes constant learning within the project team. As data is collected and analyzed, insights are generated that help better understand the system being intervened in—this in turn informs and improves the project’s strategy and tactics.

Continuous learning and improvement

It fosters an ongoing learning process, encouraging reflection, iteration, and the use of insights to refine interventions and enhance overall effectiveness.

Active participation

Evolutionary evaluation implies the active participation of all stakeholders. This not only brings diverse perspectives to the table but also helps ensure that the developed solutions are inclusive and take into account the needs and expectations of all involved groups.

Flexibility in methodology

As a less rigid approach than traditional evaluations, it allows for the exploration of diverse and creative methodologies and tools for data collection and analysis—particularly useful in complex and dynamic contexts.