Circular City- the boardgame, the first board game focusing on the circular economy
The circular economy comes into play: "Circular City - the board game" conceived and developed by the Municipality of Prato, the Municipality of Taichung (Taiwan), and ARCO's Circular Innovation & Sustainable Commodities is the first game in which participants aim to adopt circular economy practices at the local level. The idea for the game came [...]
The potential of emancipatory research in user-centered practice
Involving the community in participatory processes is a key component in promoting social innovation functional to the transformation of local welfare. The Inclusive Development Unit carried out an Emancipatory Research with users benefiting from the Inclusion Income (Reddito di Inclusione REI) provided by the social services of the Prato Area to evaluate the impact of [...]
What if I were mayor? Young people in the game to shape the local policies of the future
Sustainable development, gender equality, LGBTQIA+ rights, workers’ defence, all challenges at the centre of the role-playing game “What if I were Mayor?” created to bring young people closer to local political decision-making processes. The game was developed by the Local Development Unit in the context of the project ‘Local authorities and young people for the […]
CarINg, the wellbeing of care leavers in protection systems
CarINg - Empowering child care systems and supporting leaving care from within - is an action-research project whose protagonists are boys and girls living outside their family of origin. The project aims to support boys and girls leaving the care system - care leavers - in building a life project and gaining autonomy. The activities [...]
5 key benefits of external evaluation for cooperation and development projects
ARCO Research Center is personally committed in spreading the culture of evaluation. The reason is simple: external evaluation is the only way to understand which interventions really work and why! I have learned that success depends on knowing what works Bill Gates Based on the results of an external evaluation, organizations can focus their efforts […]
MERGE, a Horizon project to measure what matters
The overall objective of MERGE is to bring together researchers, policymakers, statistical authorities, and civil society actors to improve the usefulness and accessibility of policy frameworks and indicators on multidimensional well-being and strengthen the transition towards economic policies that support sustainable development. MERGE is about building a better economy for everyone. MERGE addresses the opportunities [...]
A comparative review of existing Voluntary Local Reviews (VLR) guidelines
Voluntary Local Reviews can be considered a process to accelerate SDG localization, leading to the “construction of collective knowledge” through the lens of the SDGs. Even though a common, harmonized definition of Voluntary Local Reviews (VLRs) does not exist, VLRs are strategic documents allowing local and regional governments to share local priorities, challenges and aspirations […]
The importance of awareness campaigns to enlarge health coverage in low- and middle-income countries
In Low- and Middle-Income Countries, direct payments often dominate health care financing and represent a serious obstacle to the achievement of Universal Health Coverage. Out-of-pocket expenditures tend to exacerbate the severity of poverty mainly among the populations who lack adequate financial protection. The article “Estimating causal effects of community health financing via principal stratification” written [...]