New York, USA, December 9, 2021 -  The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) signed this week an agreement of €20 million additional funding from Germany to UNDP Accelerator Labs.

Germany’s financial support to the Accelerator Labs has now reached €50 million, following on the first agreement signed in 2019.

With this additional funding, Germany confirms its role as a visionary founding investor of the Accelerator Labs, a network that taps into bottom-up innovations, enables experimentation and tests innovative ways of addressing social and environmental challenges. This also provides essential support for this joint venture to reach new heights in 2022 and 2023 and will help cement the Accelerator Lab’s contribution to shaping #NextGenUNDP in line with UNDP’s newly released Strategic Plan 2022-2025.

Because of the speed, dynamics, and complexity of today’s challenges, we need to accelerate progress toward the Global Goals. The UNDP Accelerator Labs are uniquely positioned to lead the great transformation needed to achieve this. After one year and a half of activity, the network of 91 Labs covering 115 countries has powered UNDP for faster learning about today’s toughest development challenges, supported governments with actionable insights, and acted as a catalyst for COVID-19 recovery. The Accelerator Labs are creating bottom-up change by building collective knowledge with grassroots innovators, increasing and diversifying data sources and introducing innovation methods that are new to development cooperation – such as solutions mapping, citizen science or system thinking.

Germany’s investment will help embed and mainstream innovation practices and fast-track learning across UNDP and in the broader sustainable development ecosystem. One example of such innovation practices deployed by the Labs is collective intelligence. From citizens' insights to grassroots solutions, data from mobile phone companies to satellite imagery and Artificial Intelligence (AI), collective intelligence can help us tap into new sources of data and insight to fill SDG data gaps and understand emerging problems more quickly.

UNDP Accelerator Labs, with Germany’s support, will be able to continue channeling the innovations, knowledge and contributions of people across the globe with the goal of putting this planet on a more sustainable and equitable path.

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About UNDP Accelerator Labs

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Accelerator Labs is the world’s largest and fastest learning network on wicked sustainable development challenges. Co-built as a joint-venture with the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany and the Qatar Fund for Development, the Network covers 115 countries, and taps into local innovations to create actionable insights and reimagine sustainable development for the 21st century. acceleratorlabs.undp.org or | @UNDPAccLabs

About Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) of Germany

Within the German government, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is responsible for Germany’s official development policy. The BMZ’s task is to determine the objectives of German development policy, to negotiate with about 60 partner countries worldwide regarding bilateral cooperation, and to play a part in shaping multilateral cooperation.

The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development of Germany is a founding investor of the UNDP Accelerator Labs Network, alongside the Qatar Fund For Development.
www.bmz.de | @BMZ_Bund

For more information or media inquiries, please contact:
Erika Antoine, UNDP Communications, erika.antoine@undp.org