Towards a Synergy Index
A data-driven framework for systemic capacity building and high-impact collaborations
“One of the greatest impediments to pursuing synergies between climate and sustainable development actions is fragmentation at all levels – fragmentation of institutional landscapes, subnational, national, and international, operating in silos; fragmentation of climate finance and its governance; fragmentation in policy-making, design, and implementation; and finally, fragmentation of research, knowledge, and data leading to a proliferation of different tools and methods often of little relevance to the policy context. This fragmentation not only leads to wasted resources but also policy incoherence because of trade-offs emerging from compartmentalized policymaking.”
Challenges in climate action, sustainability, and social innovation often demand large-scale collaboration across diverse organizations and communities. Yet, there is a persistent gap in effectively identifying, assessing, and catalyzing partnerships that can produce greater outcomes than any single entity might achieve alone. This research proposal introduces the Synergy Index, a standardized methodology and potential metric aimed at facilitating smarter alliances and decision-making processes based on shared goals, capacities, and contexts.
By leveraging open data, knowledge graph architectures, and a context-aware scoring model, the proposed Synergy Index helps stakeholders recognize how best to allocate resources, forge strategic collaborations, and amplify their impact. In doing so, it addresses a crucial question: How can synergy metrics reveal collaborative potential most likely to amplify collective impact towards sustainable development goals? The project aspires to refine our collective ability to foster new forms of capacity building and establish an evidence-based, continuous synergy ecosystem that supports local and global efforts for sustainable change.