A New Approach to Problem-Solving Across the Sustainable Development Goals
The Brooking Institution's new report, 17 Rooms: A new approach to spurring action for the Sustainable Development Goals, describes an effort to innovate around the process of SDG problem-solving itself-
COVID-19 has only underscored the central message of the Sustainable Development Goals that the underlying problems are both interconnected and urgent, so new mindsets are required to generate faster progress on many fronts at once.
In practical terms, 17 Rooms consists of participants from disparate specialist communities each meeting in their own “Rooms,” or working groups, one for each SDG. Each Room is tasked with a common assignment of identifying cooperative actions they can take over the subsequent 12-18 months. Emerging ideas are then shared across Rooms to spot opportunities for collaboration.