UNDP Timor-Leste Accelerator Lab

We address challenges through sense making, exploratory learning and building portfolios of experimentation that align with the Sustainable Development Goals.

As a small island developing state vulnerable to climate change but also with 46 percent multidimensional poverty, Timor-Leste has been facing various challenges particularly in 2021. In the midst of the COVID-19 surge, the country also experienced a massive flood that affected thousands of families. To support long-term sustainable and resilient approaches, the UNDP Timor-Leste Accelerator Lab team is implementing activities that empower all citizens including youth, women, children and people with a disability to engage with our ongoing initiatives. For example: our youth-led green initiative has sparked the joy of learning among the participants of our green building design challenge which has led to a green building prototype that is now a space for youth interaction and learning. This initiative aims to build the foundation for an innovation ecosystem in Timor-Leste and the sharing of knowledge and tools that are relevant to our context. Another main challenge that we currently focus on is how to tackle plastic waste at household level through a social experiment. This effort will include ethnography, where we learn what factors influence people’s current practice of using single-use plastic bags. Finally, for our solutions mapping efforts, we are collecting local solutions and exercising collective sensemaking together with colleagues, community members as well as learning from the unknown.