The impact of the COVID-19 crisis goes, beyond the health emergency, deepening inequalities, affecting livelihoods, routines, and the general well-being of the population. However, it has also created an opportunity to revolutionize the context in which we live, and the necessary the space, to take measures into closing the socioeconomic gaps pre-existing to the pandemic.

In this context, it is a priority to think beyond the immediate, and seek strategies for the socio-economic recovery through innovative alternatives, to the challenges of productivity and social inclusion that the current crisis has highlighted. Aceleración 2030 is our response to this challenge. It is an initiative to use open innovation networks, as a process to systematize collective learning, created through the networks of Acceleration Laboratories and offices of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), as well as the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Mipymes (MICM) of the Dominican Republic.

In its first edition, Aceleración 2030 has focused on supporting micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which represent more than 98% of the business fabric of the Dominican Republic, contribute 39% of gross domestic product, and generate more than 2.5 million jobs. This shows that MSMEs are a key piece for the region’s economy, but they have been particularly impacted during the pandemic, so they need creative solutions to achieve a successful reconstruction.

For the development of Aceleración 2030 Mipymes (MSMEs in Spanish), we started from the question: “How can we accelerate the productivity, innovation, inclusion and resilience of Latin America and the Caribbean, in the face of COVID-19?”, and identified the sector’s critical points in the face of crisis, taking into account three important factors: the use of information sources, people and technology, to develop this initiative, that in the application phase, identifies already  existent solutions and stories that may be useful to other entrepreneurs, in the categories of health and occupational safety, agile means of payments, and logistics and distribution chains.

It was also used a starting point for the preparation of this initiative, the "Economic and market situation of MSMEs in the Dominican Republic due to the COVID-19 crisis" report, created as part of an alliance between the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and MSMEs (MICM), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Princeton University and the Vice Presidency of the Dominican Republic.

This document shows how currently 93.3% of MSMEs are not betting on technological tools or processes, even when knowing their importance and impact. These findings allowed us to focus the initiative, in the search for solutions around three (3) specific categories: Occupational Health and Safety; Agile Payment Means; and Logistics and Distribution Chains, with the certainty that these ideas already exist, but require support networks to connect with the businesses that need them most.

Currently, Aceleración 2030 Mipymes is present in nine (9) countries of the region: Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, and the Dominican Republic, thanks to the joint work of the MICM and those of the regional networks of UNDP and its Acceleration Laboratories, and the Regional Center for the promotion of MSMEs (CENPROMYPE), of the Central American Integration System (SICA).

In total, 91 registrations of innovative solutions already implemented in the region were received, and the inspiring stories of transformation that companies have experienced during COVID-19 were raised. Making these findings visible, within the context of each country, is only possible thanks to the alliances created with the organizations, institutions and key people within the region’s MSMEs ecosystem, through which we have managed to expand the scope and make this initiative a reality, and operated in a network of 9 countries and 17 partner institutions. This network approach largely reminds us of SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals and shows the value of collaborative work between different networks of actors from the public sector, companies, NGOs, entrepreneurial communities, universities and many others.

The lessons learned so far, outline an ideal path for the next stage of the process where these innovations in the region will be validated and communicated, and were we will also be able to learn about the transformation stories during COVID-19. Aceleración 2030, is an initiative that is just beginning, but whose alliances and regional expansion demonstrate its potential as a network to promote the vision of a multidisciplinary group of institutions and provide timely technical support to achieve changes in the medium and long term, in the region’s productive framework.