Simplifying Strategic Frugal Innovation and Sustainability Formulation and Evaluation: An SDG-Maslowian Approach: A Review and Proposed Framework

Chien-Sing Lee

Abstract: The 17 United Nations SDGs are aspirations towards a greater society/world. But not all countries have the capacity or capability to follow. Model-based expected results are sometimes not realized. Possible reasons are first, sometimes, multi-stakeholder macro-micro economic and cultural/lifestyle challenges, require coordinated will and effort, to reach and benefit the people. Second, there may be too many evaluation metrics. Third, localization and harmonization are needed. Hence, we should reduce complexity in requirements and evaluation while augmenting human centricity, towards more needs-based requirements/solutions. Framed within the UNEP’s intrinsic, instrumental, cultural values and the Balanced Scorecard, this pilot grounded theory study first maps the UN SDGs to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to determine the centrality of design. Next, the 2024 top 5 global SDG countries and the top 5 Southeast Asian countries’ dashboard performances are compared, and contrasted with their respective World Happiness Report ranking, to identify two key ground factors and the baseline. An example of localization, based on intersection of union of global-local SDG-Maslow, Computational Thinking, and the Sustainable Awareness Framework is then presented. Hopefully, as hypotheses emerge, broader and deeper understanding and investigation will develop, not only with regards to the states of progress, but also foci, strategies, outcomes, and subsequently, suitable reference points, pivots to related possibilities and possibly, room for collaboration, based on dynamic weighted criteria analyses. The findings, however, are preliminary thus (not generalizable) due to the small sample size.

External IDs:dblp:conf/iccsa/Lee25