UNDP Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Accelerator Lab

Inspiring a culture of innovation through locally driven solutions in key Blue Economy sectors such as fisheries, marine conservation, renewable energy, tourism and waste management.

The UNDP Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Accelerator Lab was first launched in 2019. The Lab focuses on solving challenges in key sectors of the Blue Economy under a Blue Economy for Green Islands approach. In order to explore and encourage behavioural change in the Blue Economy, the Lab has applied experimentation approaches, collective intelligence tools, and innovation style challenges, which have revealed emerging insights and trends that hold promise for more responsible ocean-based development. Iterations and explorations have also sought alternative uses for sargassum seaweed and fish offal for climate action, validation of new technologies such as robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning for underwater data collection and coral reef mapping, and blockchain systems for fisheries traceability. Moving ahead, the Lab will continue to develop BlueDIGITAL, a pilot project using digital tools to improve value chains within the Blue Economy for fisherfolk, government, tourism industry partners and the general public, as well as continuing to integrate learning and innovation culture into development.