I am standing on a podium in Baku, Azerbaijan, in front of 46 city Mayors, gathered together from all corners of the country. There is […]
In nowadays world immersed in multiple crises and in growing uncertainty, where the situation and dynamics change even on hourly basis, we should all embrace […]
In 2022 living solely offline seems like something from a bygone era. Connectivity and technology have indubitably become integral parts of most people’s daily lives. […]
If we are to bring about systemic change, we need a “portfolio” of solutions, rather than assuming that a single project can lead to the […]
When you talk to urban development practitioners, they seem to agree that there are no silver bullet solutions to the challenges cities face. What is […]
Anyone who wants to make a difference in their community is now able to mobilize support and funds in Georgia through the homegrown crowdfunding platform […]
As part of the Joint EU & UNDP Virtual Forum on Urban Transformations, we interviewed two thought leaders on how to radically change our urban spaces to become […]
A large and diverse group of municipalities, research institutions and think tanks has kicked off a promising dialogue on how to radically change cities and […]
UNDP Europe and Central Asia is launching the Ministry of Data (MoD) handbook – a guide to run successful data innovation challenges, co-created and tested […]
Urban digitalization can accelerate our progress towards cities with cleaner air, creating a more eco-friendly environment in Belarus. Urban green spaces’ natural ability to filter […]
EU & UNDP organized a joint forum on “Embracing Complexity & System Innovation, and its Implications,” on 28 October 2021. The purpose of the forum […]
The joint EU and UNDP Partner Forum discussed how to address today’s dynamic challenges through new approaches that embrace uncertainty and discovery. Brussels/ New York/ Istanbul/ Skopje, 28 October […]
We are living in an age of long, interlinked emergencies that cannot be adequately addressed unless nations and governments can look beyond the horizon of […]
To celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child, we at UNDP Kyrgyzstan are reaching out to innovators across Europe and Central Asia to promote our […]
UNDP Kazakhstan Accelerator Lab team decided to experiment with a new approach to organizational strategies and ‘hack’ our own Country Programme Document (CPD), a strategy […]
UNDP announced the five organizations and startups that have been selected as the winners of the 2020 BOOST Innovation Challenge Fund.
Identifying effective means of increasing citizen participation in decision making is timely and relevant considering the impact of the pandemic on populations and governments preparing […]
What strategic innovation and art have in common – the role of identity, the need to have a direction and clearly conceptualized design principles, the […]
UNDP announced the seven civil society organizations (CSOs) that have been selected as Civil Society Technology Challenge awardees of the 2020 BOOST regional acceleration program. […]
Public procurement can be positively influenced by open contracting. This type of tendering enables all the interested individuals and legal entities to easily access data […]
Starting a platform for civil society development/transformation in 2020 was no easy feat, given the tumultuous state of the world. However, through innovative and community-centered […]
After one year of collaboration with the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) on supporting non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other civil society organizations (CSOs) in 57 OIC […]
As we kick-off our online course on portfolio thinking in collaboration with the EU, we will be updating this blog with weekly live entries, snippets […]
We are excited to announce that the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has started the implementation of the EU & UNDP Mayors for Economic Growth […]
The acceleration of the digital transformation will be crucial to weather the crisis and ensure long-term growth as we enter a “new normal.” We’d like […]
Michael Jordan will shed light on personal data stores; we’ll use the full Bulls team to illustrate data cooperatives, and coach Jackson will help us […]
UNDP AltFinLab and UNDP Lebanon have created a system solution and technical platform together with the Social Impact Network. The platform, built during the DLT4EU […]
UNDP AltFinLab explains their Track-and-Trace project, led under the DLT4EU accelerator programme, and addresses how the application of DLTs help solve societal and environmental challenges […]
Crises create opportunities, and we created one, LiveLebanon, in October 2009 by bringing citizens, the diaspora, and the private sector together to find solutions to […]
Agorà is a City Transformation Portfolio — a template that can be applied in any city system for designing and managing pandemic response and renewal […]
In an increasingly urbanized planet, understanding cities has never been so high on the agenda. The uniqueness of each city as complex sociotechnical systems is […]
How do we collaborate and communicate effectively online? How can we enable informed decision making in this new distributed reality? How can we ensure that […]
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the fragility of the networks linking the world together and challenged us to reimagine how we work together and maintain […]
The Presence Anytime Anywhere (PAA) project is exploring solutions to this problem, using a new technology called spatial computing that supports 3D data visualization.
UNDP Europe and Central Asia and the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced today the selected participants of BOOST’s Polish Challenge Fund, which brings together […]
UNDP Europe and Central Asia launched a new videocast series on using systems thinking to solve development challenges. In this opening episode of the series […]
In this post, we’re diving deeper into the question of how to exercise control over one’s data, how such ‘control taking’ would work in practice, […]
UNDP Europe and Central Asia and Koç Holding announced today the selected participants of BOOST’s Civil Society Technology Challenge, which aims to accelerate the digital […]
UNDP Europe and Central Asia and the Slovak Ministry of Finance announced today the selected participants of BOOST’s Innovation Challenge Fund, which brings together innovators […]
The shifting ground around us, a different type of demand from our counterparts and the availability of new organisational assets has gradually shifted the needle […]
The components of urban systems, from waste management to transport and parks, are interconnected and dynamic. Intervening to create change in any one of these […]
To tackle the long-term effects of Covid-19, UNDP Europe and Central Asia is launching BOOST, a regional acceleration program for social impact innovation. It will support […]
The current pandemic – the first of the algorithmic age – has not only shown the vulnerabilities of our social, economic and health systems, it has also […]
In the last few years there has been a growing interest from the public, private and development sectors in adopting a systems lens to develop […]
Blockchain, an emerging technology often associated with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, has tremendous potential to tackle this and other challenges, accelerating development progress that truly […]
UNDP Uzbekistan’s Accelerator Lab launched the Green Aral Sea crowdfunding campaign, which will help resolve the impacts of the Aral Sea disaster.
In this post we’re looking at ways to ‘do’ data empowerment. Our aim is to provide those who design, implement, evaluate or fund data for […]
At UNDP we know too well that traditional approaches to development are struggling to keep up with the dynamic speed, breadth and nature of today’s challenges. And […]
Currently, more than half of the world’s population lives in cities and the urban population is expected to double by 2050. Intense urbanization has led […]
UNDP and Islamic Development Bank launched a renewed action plan to strengthen collaboration in support of national efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
In the Arab region despite steady progress in reducing poverty and boosting health and education, many countries face daunting development challenges. Tadamon aims to strengthen […]
Working with Magic Leap, the German Space Agency and BadVR, we created an experiential visualization, Climate Change Spares No One, that brings to life visceral […]
The public transport stops locations and schedules have been set based on an assessment conducted some 30 years ago and has not been upgraded ever […]
UNDP has been exploring ways to increase Islamic finance’s impact by linking Indonesia and Turkey together, through UNDP Alternative Finance Lab and UNDP Innovative Financing […]
Mayors from eight countries have joined forces with UNDP on a new initiative to boost financing for solar energy.
Forum for the Future opened the first week of educational webinars for the UNDP City Experiment Fund. Anna Simpson, curator of the Futures Centre, and […]
The complexity of the challenges we deal with – whether it is conflict, climate change or governance – combined with the high value and cost […]
AltFinLab, UNDP Egypt, and Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center partnered together to foster crowdfunding in Egypt to unlock investment for achieving SDGs.
Cities occupy only about 2% of Earth’s land area, but house between 60–85% of the world population. At a time of accelerated change — and with […]
Since its launch in 2009, Live Lebanon has implemented 67 projects and raised US$4.2 million from Lebanese communities abroad. From education to environment, it has […]
Best known as the technology behind cryptocurrencies, blockchain is still too new and cutting edge for many industries. Blockchain data cannot be manipulated, it is fully […]
The Alternative Finance Lab, together with UNDP Panama, organized sessions to learn about advances in innovation with practical cases and thus be able to exchange […]
Just when we need them most, our governance systems are letting us down. Structures that have been stable for seventy years are cracking under the […]
We’ve led 35 crowdfunding campaigns at UNDP since 2015 and mobilized US$1.2 million. Here’s our take-away.
UNDP Istanbul Hub and Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra put their heads together and thought about the challenges around impact bonds-what comes to preventing and solving […]
Considering that the 21st century is an urban one, key attributes of our cities should be used as assets to harness urban development scenarios, primarily […]
UNDP AltFinLab partnered with Blockchain.com, UNHCR, and WEF to explore how block chain technology works, but also how it is already being used to pursue […]
UNDP Crowdfunding Academy has the first successful crowdfunding campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina by the “Talas” magazine team. Let’s dive into Talas magazine’s story and […]
Argan trees are, in many cases, the only income for local indigenous women. However, most of them lack cash for expanding their businesses beyond just […]
Displaced people often struggle with identity loss. Having the digital footprint of blockchain can help refugee families in transit and those of us in the […]
Could blockchain-based payment systems make financial access easier for migrant workers sending remittance payments from abroad, make the transfer cheaper, faster, and more secure?
UNDP Indonesia experiments with innovative and alternative financing models to tackle development challenges effectively. Here are the ten things that helped their crowdfunding campaign raise […]
The following piece was first published on the AltFinLab blog and was originally published on July 18, 2017. Crowdfunding Academy in Ukraine is a three […]
This year, our efforts are geared toward seeing to what extent crowdfunding can help small entrepreneurs accessing funding in places where it is prohibitively expensive […]
After two months of intensive work with the Crowdfunding Academy team, twelve teams are ready with their campaigns. Check out the teams and their videos, […]
UNDP Moldova explains the challenges and lessons from their mission of increasing children fruit consumption through their first crowdfunding campaign.
From conducting a successful campaign to setting up Crowdfunding Academy and UNDP Alternative Finance Lab, helping to launch more than 15 campaigns in 10+ countries […]
Zagreb Crowdfunding Convention comes as a manifestation of the Crowdfunding Academy’s goals to contribute to the development of a crowdfunding market in Croatia. It’s the […]
From blockchain to crowdfunding, Alternative Finance Lab mobilized over EUR 3 million across a series of experiments with new financial mechanisms.
The same as for software developers, we, development professionals, need a paradigm shift in how we do work, how that work gets financed and how […]
We are travelling around the world and meeting teams and projects of Global Crowdfunding Academy. All of them wish to make a change in their […]
From equity-based crowfunding and person-to-person lending, to crypto currencies and mobile money; entirely new players are disrupting the field of financing for development and public […]
The first Global Crowdfunding Academy organized for and by the UNDP offices around the world had a really strong competition. After a tough selection process, […]
