As part of the Innovation Labs cycle offered throughout the year by the Regional Center for Latin America and the Caribbean, we supported the development of a lab in Paraguay and another one in Costa Rica.
The theme of the Costa Rican lab was “Managing Public-Private Partnerships in Costa Rica for the Management of Natural Resources, in the face of the COVID-19 Crisis”, and was in charge of Asociación Regional Centroamericana para el Agua y el Ambiente – ARCA.
In Paraguay’s edition, the theme was “Promotion and Defense of Civic Space in Paraguay“, coordinated by Asociación de ONGs del Paraguay – POJOAJU.
Both laboratories were held virtually and were attended by 25 people each. During the sessions, the teams learned to apply the Design Thinking methodology for the development of innovative prototypes to solve the problems addressed.
The design of prototypes implied that no project had to be already in implementation at the time of the Lab, but it had to have the capacity to visually express what it sought to solve. They had to be able to empathize with the problem at hand and guarantee its effective implementation.
At the end of each laboratory, a jury of experts selected a winning team that received a seed fund of US$1,500 to be used in the implementation of one of the phases of the prototype. In the case of Paraguay, two winning teams were selected.
We will continue working from the team to create spaces that encourage CSO’s in their innovation and creativity in the design of solutions.