Government Reform
Building state and local government innovation capacity: Investing in university-government innovation partnerships
17 Rooms is an innovative approach to tackling the interconnected economic, social, and environmental challenges affirmed by all countries in 2015 as the world’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Co-organized by the Brookings Institution and The Rockefeller Foundation since 2018, the 17 Rooms initiative has evolved on two tracks:
- A flagship platform focused on international-scale challenges.
- “17 Rooms-X,” a widely accessible methodology to help local communities take practical steps toward local priorities.
In both tracks, 17 Rooms offers a way to bring people together and inspire new forms of cooperative insight and action—aiming to advance gains within each goal while also fostering progress across all goals.
Brochure
17 Rooms flagship
In 2025, the 17 Rooms flagship seeks to refine and advance “big ideas” that could significantly improve hundreds of millions of lives or help safeguard the planet by 2030.
For each idea, this entails a rapid series of virtual working group (“Room”) sessions to collaboratively vet, refine, and advance the proposition. Room outputs include memos and commentaries on the Brookings and The Rockefeller Foundation webpages.
From new global funds for digital cash transfers to novel data tools combating forced labor or breakthrough technologies for environmental conservation, the 17 Rooms flagship advances promising ideas in public debates. Feel free to drop a line if you know of an idea that might be a candidate for the 17 Rooms Flagship!
17 Rooms-X
17 Rooms-X offers a structured yet flexible process for communities to identify priorities, foster collaboration, and turn shared insights into coordinated local action toward the SDGs. Over 70 communities across more than two dozen countries have experimented with the approach in a range of contexts, including municipalities, universities, schools, community foundations, generosity networks, and a multicountry effort across Latin America.
17 Rooms-X brings community members together in “Rooms,” typically one per SDG, where participants collaborate to identify actions they can implement over the next 12-18 months. Sharing emerging ideas across Rooms then uncovers opportunities for collaboration. The dynamic process offers an efficient way of convening natural allies, ideally promoting enough familiarity to enable collaboration and enough diversity to spark new ideas and paths to action.
What does 17 Rooms offer?
- Big ideas. Each Room has the potential to surface or strengthen a bold, scalable idea that could materially advance one or more SDG.
- Concrete actions. Room outputs might range from influencing existing initiatives to creating analytical tools, policy shifts, strategic plans, or even new entities.
- Novel insights. When participants tackling common problems share their perspectives from diverse viewpoints, organizations, and sectors, unique forms of group learning and inspiration can emerge, both within and across Rooms.
- Conversations over presentations. Discussions are structured around collaboration and peer-learning, aiming to focus on what’s best for an issue, not for any individual organization.
- Pragmatic communities. A common quest for action, rooted in a blend of perspectives, can foster a shared sense of energy and opportunity.
Latest from 17 Rooms
Sustainable Development Goals
17 Rooms: Supporting ‘big ideas’ for people and planet
Reproductive Health Care
An ‘impact hub’ approach to transforming global maternal health outcomes by 2030
Public Health
Revealing an invisible health threat