The UNDP Accelerator Labs were created in 2019 to re-imagine development for the 21st century – and to do so at an unprecedented scale by tapping into the relationships, resources, and expertise of UNDP and its partners.

With the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany and the Qatar Fund for Development as founding investors, and support from Italy and UNDP core donors, UNDP Accelerator Labs now consists of 91 Labs covering 115 countries. Our mission is to catalyze positive change by finding and sharing solutions that fit the times we live in and generating new ideas for the times yet to come.

UNDP Accelerator Lab teams help UNDP and partners close the gap between the current practices of international development and the need for an accelerated pace of change. To do this, the Labs create new service lines in development that are open-ended and safe to fail. The Lab network does this by iterating in a cycle of sensing, exploring, testing and growing.

The UNDP Accelerator Lab in the Philippines, also known as ALab PH, was founded in 2019 with the initial mandate to work on three frontier challenges: circular economy, cities, and local convergences for poverty reduction.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, support extended to pandemic response to look at how digital solutions can promote the inclusion of marginalized groups amid lockdowns. This included deploying chatbots and machine learning to understand the impact of COVID-19 on households and enterprises, as well as piloting digital initiatives such as a platform to promote inclusive supply chain for PPEs and digital cash transfers. Altogether, these have sprung forth a comprehensive portfolio of work, where synergies and complementaries between each are constantly explored towards integration.