This network of laboratories in various different countries presents and enhances local solutions and the expansion thereof, while at the same time mobilizing a wide-reaching and dynamic partnership of actors who contribute with knowledge, resources and experience. The objective is to transform our collective approach through the introduction of new evidence- and practice-based protocols that will accelerate the testing and dissemination of solutions within and among these countries. This, in turn, will allow the global community to learn collectively based on local knowledge and specificities at a speed and on a scale that our societies and our planet require. This will be achieved through:

- Solutions that are local in origin, identifying tools and practices that work and expanding them
-  Quick and practical testing and interaction in order to implement what works and move beyond obvious solutions;

The Accelerator Lab Cabo Verde team is part of this laboratory network, and focuses on three key pillars of the country’s economy and development: the blue economy, the digital economy and tourism, which cut across all of the economic sectors and challenges faced by the country and the world.

Lab Open Day

With the objective of leading the laboratory’s efforts to delve deep into the community and collective intelligence, the mapping of solutions carried out by the Accelerator Lab Cabo Verde team has from the very beginning developed positive relations with a variety of local communities, citizens’ groups and young innovators whom it invited to present their ideas, projects and solutions in the widest possible range of areas of sustainable development. This group of youth and citizens includes community leaders with whom the lab will keep community involvement sustainable on the long term.

A Lab Open Day has been created to prioritize existing innovations and solution standards in the various different areas of social, economic and technological development created by communities and public and private institutions both in Cabo Verde and in Cabo Verdean diaspora communities.

With the COVID-19 pandemic and the essential rules of social distancing, the introduction of the Lab Open Day on-line functions not only as a strategy for finding innovative solutions and ideas but also as a privileged channel for establishing contacts with the outside world, with a wider network in which all of the portfolios of the Joint Office and of other United Nations agencies are invited to take part regarding learning processes and perceptions specific to each project or solution in their interest.

COVID-19 SOLUTIONS at Lab Open Day

The Lab Open Day has been a successful strategy for reaching young Cabo Verdean innovators and their innovative projects, such as COMVIDA, “GILERA- CHEIO”(e-commerce), an “Anti-Infection Machine” for hand washing, a seed planting drone (SPD), a disinfection drone (DD), Smart Cities.

COMVIDA - A technological solution

This pandemic has triggered an unprecedented demand for digital health technology solutions and has revealed successful solutions such as for population screening, tracking the infection, prioritizing the use and allocation of resources, and designing targeted responses

THE HAND WASHING MACHINE

The Accelerator Lab team in order to escalate the hand washing machine solution by a young innovator in partnership with the project “Capacitação para uma Recuperação Resiliente - Fase 2” UNDP portfolio environment, has brought two hands washing machine to the Praia city suburban communities: Kasa de Amizade de Safende and Ponta D´Água Health Center (designed and produced),  the Lab is also articulating with Education portfolio from the Joint-Office and the Ministry of Education a design and production of more 25 hand washing machines for pre-primary education and primary schools.

SEED PLANTING DRONE (SPD), DISINFECTION DRONE (DD)

Thus, the Accelerator Lab in the context of the COVID 19 pandemic, with the principle of finding solutions, has been looking for innovative ideas in the various areas that can respond to people's needs and sustainable development; as part of the Lab Open Day, the SPD project was presented by the young innovator Érico Pinheiro from PrimeBotics. It is an initiative and/or technological solution to support the fight against the spread of COVID-19 (street disinfestation) as well as to combat the socio-economic crisis (linked to agriculture) caused by the Pandemic crisis.

XALABAS

A project based on a concept of public intervention as a moment of collaboration and dialogue with the residents and merchants of Achada Grande Frente and the neighborhood. Participating artists has carrying out their activities on a residency basis, finally leaving their works on the walls and surroundings of the neighborhood.

Communication

As a part of our communication strategy aimed at scaling up Lab Open Day to the global level of the Accelerator Lab, we have shared this experience in the various different groups of the UNDP Teams channel, and countries like Barbados and Ecuador are replicating this experience with our support. We are currently developing a video in which innovative citizens are asked to submit their projects and ideas on Lab Open Day through social media and, perhaps, television, every Thursday.