About Us

Just one year before the outbreak of the COVID‑19 pandemic, UNDP set out on an ambitious journey of renewal: the global launch of the Accelerator Labs Network. Conceived as a bold injection of fresh talent and new ways of thinking, the Labs were designed to bring agility, curiosity and experimentation into the heart of UNDP’s development practice—and into the communities we serve.

This was not merely a recruitment effort; it was a transformation. Ninety‑one Labs were established across 115 countries, bringing together 273 social innovation experts from the private sector, civil society, academia, government and the diaspora. Seventy‑two percent of Labbers were new to the UN system, carrying perspectives from outside the traditional development ecosystem, and all arrived with a shared mission: to explore new approaches to understanding and practicing development in collective, locally grounded ways.

We were invited—encouraged even—to build the plane as we flew it. To question assumptions, to experiment, to learn from failure, and to treat uncertainty not as a barrier but as a generative space for discovery. As former UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner urged, “Let a thousand flowers bloom.” Planted in the fertile ground of UNDP’s decades of expertise, the Labs grew into a globally distributed, agile and dynamic learning network built for the complexity and volatility of the 21st century.

Over six years, the Accelerator Labs have reimagined how development is done. Working from the bottom up, we have empowered collectives, surfaced grassroots innovations and harnessed data, evidence and local insights to accelerate progress in more than 100 countries. Our work has helped advance climate resilience, transform food systems, reimagine public services and spark new value propositions for sustainable development. At the same time, the Labs have strengthened UNDP’s own organizational renewal—contributing to foresight, strategic innovation and digital transformation across the institution.

Yet the story of these six years is not only one of methods, metrics or milestones. It is a story of people—of communities who trusted us, taught us and partnered with us. It is a story of inclusion that goes beyond “leaving no one behind” toward the deeper ambition of “bringing everyone forward.” Along the way, we learned to challenge hierarchies, open spaces for collective learning and nurture a mindset capable of catalyzing change, restoring dignity and elevating the wisdom of those closest to the challenges we seek to address.