UNDP Azerbaijan Accelerator Lab

Our team is on the ground tracking down challenges by identifying effective and sustainable solutions that can be replicated and scaled up.

Our UNDP Azerbaijan Accelerator Labs team understands that doing development differently is not just about acting fast to tackle challenges but thinking creatively about how to turn a crisis into an opportunity for longer term improvements. A local team of explorers, mappers and experimenters has already been mapping out innovative solutions on the ground in areas such as urban development, agrobiodiversity, digitalization, upcycling and healthcare. The Lab works together closely with innovators and cooperates with the government and international partners to highlight solutions that can help create jobs and develop new skills for a future-oriented labor market. This is achieved through supporting businesses to go digital, encouraging women and girls to select STEM, and other activities. On the environment frontier, we took a deep dive into building back greener: establishing the country’s first-ever upcycling platform, investigating a water-smart society of the future, identifying energy efficient solutions and exploring many other areas. We get asked a lot these days whether we’re still as optimistic about the future of the Accelerator Labs as when we first started this journey a year ago. And we say: Absolutely.