UNDP Congo Accelerator Lab

We are working to unearth innovations for food security, informal workers and urban waste to improve livelihoods in Congo. 

For the UNDP Congo Accelerator Lab, we work on issues that directly affect the Congolese people, such as food insecurity, urban waste and informality. The COVID-19 epidemic was an opportunity to learn numerous lessons for a country which abounds in strong potential for agricultural production, labor and innovation. The system currently depends largely on its imports and on the informal sector. Faced with the constraints linked to the pandemic, the actors of the food system have mobilized initiatives to transform the threat of Congo's dependence on imports into a sustainable development opportunity to strengthen resilience to better face to external crises. 

The informal sector, because of the great vulnerability of its actors, remains unquestionably the most affected by the COVID-19 crisis. Many actors have disappeared, some are resisting, and others have adapted. The challenge for the Lab to make contributions toward reducing the vulnerability of actors in this sector by identifying innovative local solutions to sustainably initiate their post COVID-19 recovery and to strengthen their resilience in the face of future crises.