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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Reclaiming Civic Space
In crisis settings where governance systems are weakened or fractured, the Accelerator Labs have focused their R&D efforts on restoring trust, rebuilding civic infrastructure, and fostering inclusive local governance. These interventions often target the social fabric itself—developing new mechanisms for participatory decision-making, supporting grassroots mediation in divided communities, and amplifying marginalized voices in local planning. Using ethnographic research, behavioral mapping, and crowdsourced insight tools, the Labs have helped identify social tensions and power imbalances while co-creating platforms that support transparency, accountability, and equity. In contexts marked by displacement, intercommunal conflict, or historical exclusion, R&D initiatives have aimed to bridge divides through storytelling, design-thinking-based civic labs, and localized problem-solving. The goal is not only to rebuild what has been lost but to reimagine how governance and justice can be practiced in fragmented environments—bottom-up, adaptive, and rooted in social solidarity.