This platform showcases existing development solutions mapped by the UNDP Accelerator Labs. They may either be documented as notes of solutions already available online or identified during the Labs’ ethnographic on-the-ground research.
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Sustaining Life Systems in Crisis
In crisis-affected settings, where institutional collapse and environmental degradation intersect, the Accelerator Labs have engaged in R&D initiatives that address the urgent need for sustainable access to water, food, biodiversity protection, and alternative energy sources. These efforts emerge from the recognition that life-supporting systems—clean water, nutritious food, ecological balance, and energy—are not only the first to collapse in protracted crises but are also the most vital to stabilize. Using tools such as systems mapping, grassroots solution exploration, and rapid prototyping, the Labs have worked with local actors to co-design hyper-adaptive interventions. From testing solar-powered irrigation in areas with disrupted energy grids to identifying community-led seed banks that preserve biodiversity under stress, these labs have explored how locally driven solutions can restore ecological balance and provide reliable resources where formal systems fail. In these contexts, sustainability becomes a crisis response mechanism—integrated, decentralized, and rooted in the lived experience of communities.
UNDP Accelerator Labs