Following last year’s launch of the funding call for Transformative Innovation by Panama’s National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation (SENACYT) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), a new phase of work is now underway. Having co-designed the funding call itself, TIPC researchers have most recently been supporting the evaluation of the selected projects, helping to strengthen their transformative potential.
From Call to Funded Projects
The funding call, was designed to support bold, transformative approaches to innovation that address complex development challenges in Panama. After a competitive selection process, four projects were approved for funding, representing a range of sectors, approaches, and institutional partnerships.
The selected projects share a common goal: moving beyond incremental change to test new ways of generating lasting social, economic, and environmental impact.
Funded Projects
The projects selected for funding under the SENACYT–IDB call are:
- Developing an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Model as a mechanism to transform waste management practices in Panama – led by SEED, CiiECYT and ITSE
Focus: Contribute to destabilising the current waste management regime, opening up space for new producer-led practices, and ways of managing solid waste and strengthening existing networks of recycling initiatives. - Co-creating a Sustainable Vision and Governance Mechanisms to Transform Rural Mobility – led by the Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá
Focus: This experiment seeks to open up the existing governance of the rural transport system to create alternative visions and participatory mechanisms to transform mobility, with an initial focus on the region of San Juan de Dios in the Coclé Province. - Stations that Transform: Redesigning Urban Communities through Inclusion, Accessibility, and Resilience – led by Georgia Tech Panama and the San Miguelito Municipality
Focus: Build a new governance and shared vision to turn cable car stations into innovation nodes for community development. - Designing Sustainable Agroecotourism Pathways: A Community Lab in the peri-urban municipality of San Martin – led by APRONAC
Focus: Experimenting with a portfolio of initiatives to protect natural ecosystems and strengthen ecosystem services under pressures of urban expansion in Panama city.
Together, these initiatives explore themes such as participatory governance, inclusive innovation, sustainability and new policy interventions to support system transformation, while testing approaches that can be adapted or scaled beyond their initial contexts.
Strengthening Impact Through Panama Workshops
To support the transition from project design to implementation, a series of workshops was recently held in Panama City, bringing together project teams, facilitators, and partners.
The workshops focused on supporting teams to sharpen the transformative nature of their work. Sessions addressed topics such as defining a clear theory of change, identifying systemic barriers, and setting realistic but meaningful evaluation targets.
An overview of the key actors, resources and rules shaping Panama’s waste management system, developed during the formative evaluation workshop in Panama (Nov 2025)
Participants also worked collaboratively to align on indicators of success and learning objectives, ensuring that each project can demonstrate not only outputs, but deeper shifts in systems or behaviours. The workshops were facilitated by Dr Claudia Obando Rodriguez, with active participation from project leads.
As Claudia noted, ‘The workshops helped created a shared understanding of what transformation means in practice and how progress will be measured over time.’
Project Spotlight: Developing an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Model as a mechanism to transform waste management practices in Panama
One of the funded initiatives, developing an EPR Model to transform solid waste management practices, illustrates the type of innovation the call set out to support.
Led by SEED, an NGO actively involved in recycling in Panama city, the Research Centre of Research and Innovation for Education, Science and Technology (CiiECYT by its Spanish acronym) and its Specialized Technical Institute of Higher Education (ITSE, by its Spanish acronym), the experimentation aims to contribute to destabilising the current waste management regime, opening up space for new producer-led practices, and ways of managing solid waste and strengthening existing networks of recycling initiatives.
Unlike many developed countries, Panama imports all its manufactured products, making it even more urgent to redefine producer responsibility – not only to encourage waste segregation practices but also to advance circularity. The aim is to experiment with alternative practices related to solid waste management by adopting a novel approach that focuses on producers, and their existing corporate behaviours and practices related to end-of-life product disposal.
During the first formative evaluation workshop the team revisited the experiment’s ambition and its theory of change. Initially, the problem was framed primarily in terms of regulatory and technological gaps. However, as the team progressed through the system analysis and the pentagonal map exercise, they recognised the importance of rules and materials across other system domains, such as society, markets and finance.
The analysis of barriers and opportunities, focused on specific actors related to the solid waste management system, helped clarify which activities could target these barriers and strengthened the ambition to contribute to broader system change.
In the coming weeks, we, as monitors, expect to see significant progress in network development and in the interaction with prime movers and pioneers, laying a strong foundation for the experiment. As new participants join, the group will need to design effective group dynamics that enhance their readiness to reflect and integrate the newcomers’ insights in order to deepen their systemic understanding of the problem and strengthen their actions to address it.
Ultimately, the experiment is expected to generate a shared vision and actionable knowledge to prepare the ground for institutionalising EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) governance and practice.
Looking Ahead
With funding secured and implementation plans strengthened, the selected projects are now entering an active phase of delivery. TIPC, SENACYT and the IDB will continue to support the teams through monitoring, learning, and evaluation, ensuring that insights are captured and shared.