By Gina Lucarelli, Team Leader, UNDP Accelerator Labs Network UNDP’s Accelerator Lab Network is now at critical mass, creating value in 115 countries, earning media coverage, serving as a magnet for partnerships across the UN and beyond, and learning from the edge to accelerate learning on what it takes to…

By Alberto Cottica, Research and Development Specialist, UNDP Accelerator Labs and Eduardo Gustale, Monitoring, Experimentation and Learning Specialist, UNDP Accelerator Labs Businesses across the planet are embracing digital tools. Digital technology is changing the way they do everything, from logistics to accounting, from payments to marketing. But what about micro…

Written by: Erika Antoine, Communications and Partnerships Specialist, UNDP Accelerator Labs After nearly three years in activity in 115 countries and running more than 400 fast and agile learning challenges (think ‘units of work’), the UNDP Accelerator Labs are reaching a state of maturity. Over the course of three years…

By Lorena Sander, Legal Innovation Advisor, UNDP “Rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, She shall have music wherever she goes.” — Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross, English nursery rhyme From lullabies to jingles to mixtapes and playlists, music has been a constant in the way…

Written by: Gina Lucarelli, Team Leader, and Erika Antoine, Communications and Partnerships Specialist, UNDP Accelerator Labs. As the global community gathers in Doha for the 2023 LDC5 Conference to call attention to the bold investments needed in “least developed countries” (LDCs) to grapple with accelerating economic and environmental shocks, it…

By: Alberto Cottica, R&D Specialist, UNDP Accelerator Labs In the Global South, climate change is a development problem. It is both a problem and an amplifier of other development problems, such as subpar infrastructure, weak institutions, multidimensional poverty and armed conflicts. As such, it is a priority for UNDP, and…

By Jeroen P.J. de Jong, Professor, Utrecht University This is a guest blog written by Dr. Jeroen P.J. de Jong (j.p.j.dejong@uu.nl), who is leading a groundbreaking research project to explore household innovation and informal entrepreneurship in South Africa. This is a collaborative effort and the result of a partnership between…

By Tayo Akinyemi, Bas Leurs and Gina Lucarelli, UNDP Accelerator Labs — In this blog, we share what the UNDP Accelerator Lab Network is learning about the relationship between digitalization and formalization. This continues our journey as a Network to surface practice-based insights about informality as we also test out new ways of surfacing knowledge. Why does the connection between digitalization and…

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…