During the month of October, the Accelerator Lab Team of Guinea-Bissau paid a visit to Cabo Verde with the aim of progressing to its next learning cycle, which will focus on Digitalization at the Ministry of Justice. The visit explored synergies with the UN office in Cabo Verde as well as with their Accelerator Lab and opened opportunities for new partnerships. 

During the one-week visit, the Lab Team met with Núcleo Operacional Para a Sociedade de Informação (NOSI), the institution responsible for creating systems and applications for the digitalization of the public services across the country and abroad. The meeting focused on public services and digitalization and opened doors for a possible partnership between NOSI and UNDP Guinea-Bissau. 

The Lab also had the opportunity to attend the Pro PALOP which is the Program for Consolidation of Economic Governance and Systems and Management of Public Finances (SGFP) of Portuguese Speaking African Countries and East Timor (Pro PALOP-TL ISC Fase II) with a focus on augmenting economic governance in Angola, Cabo Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé e Principe, and East Timor. As the team will be stopping in Guinea-Bissau in the month of November, it was a great opportunity to establish contact before their arrival in order to support them better.  

Along the course of the week, the Lab also met with the Citizen House (Casa do Cidadão), the public institution responsible for implementing the 2004 Law for Modernization of Public Administration. This meeting was crucial for understanding how and why things are being done the way they are done in the public sector. The meeting gave perspective and allowed the exploration of future synergies in the testing of digitalization at the Ministry of Justice of Guinea-Bissau.  

Additionally, a meeting was conducted with the Ministry of Justice representative at the National Archive for Civil and Criminal Identification (Arquivo Nacional de Identificação Civil e Criminal - ANICC) where the Lab was briefed on the role of the Ministry of Justice in Cabo Verde, a non-public facing body, as all the services have been decentralized due to the wide and successful national digitalization strategy. 

The week ended with the celebration of UN Day at the CO in Cabo Verde. Full activities, music, and festivities were conducted to mark the day, all respecting the respective COVID-19 measures in place.