Abstract:

In 2021, the CEURS Program (National Program for Training and Research in Urban and Regional Sustainability) was launched in Brazil to train municipal agents in the localization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Conceived as a national initiative for building local capacities, CEURS combined digital education, project-based learning, and collaborative coproduction to enable municipalities to implement Agenda 2030 in their own territories.

Throughout its successive editions, CEURS evolved as a living laboratory for innovation in learning design, generating scientific, educational, and institutional knowledge. From this experience emerged the ABC Method (Aprendizagem Baseada em Coprodução, or Coproduction-Based Learning) — a systematic framework for large-scale team training that integrates six interdependent components:
(1) Educational Commons,
(2) Heterogeneous Emergent Temporary Teams,
(3) Competence-Based Learning,
(4) User-Experience Educational Design,
(5) Digital Education, and
(6) Digital Communication.

The ABC Method was designed to provide a replicable and domain-independent model for training large and diverse teams through coproduction. It translates collective learning into actionable competencies, combining interdisciplinary collaboration with scalable digital environments. Developed through research at the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC), the method was initially validated in CEURS, which trained over 1,500 participants from 215 municipalities in 24 Brazilian states, forming cross-sectoral teams to develop and implement municipal sustainability projects.

In 2024, the ANATEL-S Program, developed in partnership with Brazil’s National Telecommunications Agency (ANATEL), became the first institutional application of the ABC Method. This program represents a shift from territorial (municipal) to organizational (sectoral) learning, training approximately 600 ANATEL employees in sustainability and awareness for the telecommunications sector. Structured into three phases—Planning and Design, Development, and Team Training—ANATEL-S applied all ABC components to create a unified learning experience supported by a customized digital platform and a comprehensive communication plan.

Preliminary results show that the ABC-based approach enabled large-scale participation, effective team mediation, and measurable competence acquisition within a short timeframe. It also demonstrated the methodology’s adaptability to different institutional contexts, confirming its potential for horizontal (across regions) and vertical (within organizations) scalability.

This paper presents the trajectory from CEURS to ANATEL-S, illustrating how the ABC Method evolved from a national capacity-building initiative into a transferable learning system. By bridging municipal and institutional learning environments, ABC offers a model for sustainable organizational transformation, aligning education, digital innovation, and public policy.

The study concludes that coproduction-based learning is an effective pathway for achieving large-scale engagement in sustainability and can serve as a reference for other nations seeking to institutionalize the SDGs through participatory digital education. Future developments include expanding the method to CEURS-Edu, a new national program aimed at training basic education teachers in Agenda 2030, consolidating ABC as a cornerstone for Brazil’s national learning ecosystem for sustainability.

Keywords:

Coproduction-Based Learning, Team Training, Digital Education, Sustainability, Capacity Building.