UNDP Ethiopia’s accelerator lab was officially launched on December 10th, 2019, as part of the largest and fastest learning network of 60 accelerator labs across the world. The lab is a space for UNDP to explore, test and grow innovations for development through collaboration and partnership internally and externally with stakeholders. We are bringing a new way of working to meet the 2030 sustainable development goals by mapping, testing and growing grassroots solutions that are crafted by those close to the problem.

Over the past year, we identified frontier challenges for Ethiopia, generated insights and learnings with an active partnership of stakeholders and remained flexible in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. We Focused on youth unemployment for skilled urban youth, efficiency of solid waste management for job creation and socio-economic response to COVID-19. Alongside these challenges we also looked at strengthening the innovation ecosystem in the country and within UNDP.

The team, made up of Netsanet Mekuria [Head of Exploration], Amanuel Tadesse [Head of solution mapping], Okelo Fekadu [Head of Experimentation] and Wudasse Berhanu [Technical expert], come from diverse backgrounds in mechanical engineering, product design, agriculture, food security and Impact measurement and management. We bring a different perspective on development challenges from expertise in innovation development, data science and human centered design that give us a unique position as an innovation partners to UNDP Ethiopia and in the ecosystem.