By Julia Nebrija, Greg Lindsay and Eduardo Gustale They move millions, employ hundreds of thousands, and support the sizable informal sector in urban economies. They are informal, or entrepreneurial transit modes (think ojeks, tuktuks, jeepneys, matatus or collectivos). They are reliant on the market: people need to go places, and…

By: Emily Anderson, Partnerships Advisor, UNDP Accelerator Labs A raven circles a verdant orchard where ripe, candy-colored apples, pears, and plums shine in the sun. Two children and I scan the scene with awe and determination — we must gather all the fruit before the pesky raven can get to…

Author: Amy Bennett Contributors: Javeria Masood, Head of Solutions Mapping, UNDP Pakistan Accelerator Lab Mohseen Riaz Ud Dean, Head of Community Research and Ethnographic Solutions Mapping, UNDP Pacific Islands Accelerator Lab Gift Ntuli, Head of Experimentation, UNDP Zimbabwe Accelerator Lab Amina Omicevic, Head of Solutions Mapping, UNDP Bosnia and Herzegovina Accelerator Lab Marina Olcese, Head of…

Author: Paulina Jiménez, Head of Solution Mapping, Ana M. Grijalva, Head of Exploration, both UNDP Accelerator Lab Ecuador, and Aymé Muzo, Independent Consultant for UNDP. The UNDP Ecuador Accelerator Lab, along with GIZ Ecuador, the GIZ Data Lab, and the University of Manchester, conducted a Data Powered Positive Deviance (DPPD)…

By: Alejandra Cervantes, Technical Advisor, Agenda 2030 Initiative, GIZ Mexico; Daniela Torres, Technical Advisor, Agenda 2030 Initiative, GIZ Mexico; Gabriela Ríos, Head of Exploration, UNDP Mexico Accelerator Lab. In the first installment of this series, we recounted our initial steps in using the Data Powered Positive Deviance (DPPD) method to…

By Tayo Akinyemi This blog captures learning from the UNDP Accelerator Labs’ ongoing process of surfacing lesser-known insights about informality, with a focus on the drivers of digitalization within informal businesses. Digitalizing Informality: A Quick Recap Sensing and surfacing frontier knowledge about emerging challenges in development is at the core of what UNDP Accelerator Labs…

By Angelica Gustilo Ong, Digital Content and Social Media Specialist, UNDP Accelerator Labs Digital technology is pervasively transforming all work sectors including the informal sector and with COVID-19, the world has been going digital at an accelerated pace. McKinsey’s Global survey recently suggested that “digital adoption has taken a quantum…

By Amy Bennett, Amadou Sow and Erika Antoine from the UNDP Accelerator Labs global team Personal. Protective. Equipment. How could we have known pre-pandemic that we would become so familiar with the acronym, PPE? How could we have imagined that we would regularly place a piece of cloth or a…

By Hasan Darwish, Head of Experimentation, UNDP Syria Accelerator Lab, Oksana Udovyk, Head of Experimentation, UNDP Ukraine Accelerator Lab, and Martin Zelinka, United Nations Volunteer, UNDP Ukraine Three languages, two countries, one challenge — to find solutions that further the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through inspiration from nature through the…