UNDP is buidling a ground-breaking network of 60 Accelerator Labs to help countries find faster, more durable solutions to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. UNDP in Viet Nam is among 11 country offices in the Asia and the Pacific region to join this largest and fastest global learning network.

Rising inequality, declining trust in public institutions, more frequent and intense climate related events, demographic and technological changes. The speed, dynamics and complexity of today’s challenges are fundamentally different from previous eras in history.

Effectively addressing these problems doesn’t just require new solutions. It requires radical new ways of identifying solutions and speeding up how quickly we learn about which ones work, which ones can grow, and which ones don’t.

The UNDP Accelerator Labs were created to re-imagine ways of making 21st century development happen — not just in silos or small corners of the development sector — but at a scale we have never seen before, by tapping into the relationships, resources, and expertise of a global leader in development.

Doing Thing Differently

The Accelerator Labs draw inspiration from local solutions that are already working — regardless of whether it’s a grassroots invention, a policy workaround, or a business that’s making the world a better place.

We radically accelerate learning about what works by

• operating as a globally integrated network where each Lab learns from the rest;
• exploring multiple solutions at the same time; and
• designing experiments that teach us whether solutions can work and grow in weeks or months rather than years.

Bringing In New Kinds of People

UNDP is bringing in new kind of people to do something that is never been done before. We’re marrying grassroots innovations with cutting-edge research and design approaches. We’re backing it with the global reach and relationships of UNDP. All this so we can accelerate progress against the world’s toughest social and environmental challenges.

Four key approaches sit at the core of the Labs’ work:

• Building on locally-sourced solutions, finding things that work and expanding on them
  
• Rapid testing and iteration to implement what works and go beyond the obvious solutions
• Combining the best understanding, ideas and expertise to generate collective knowledge
• Accelerating progress by bringing expertise, creativity and collective intelligence to bear

go to GLOBAL ACCELERATOR LABS