The UNDP Accelerator Labs Network has compiled an uncurated collection of 166 desk notes and field notes (referred to here as “the dataset”) on water-related solutions from around the world. These range from technical solutions for harvesting water, to citizen science initiatives for measuring the quality of water, to roofing materials, to hydroponics systems. Each note includes a short description of the solution, geographic information of where it was mapped, a number of thematic area and SDG tags, a link to a longer description of the solution, and (in most cases) an image that illustrates the solution. These are shared here as cards to facilitate workshop activities.
Note this collection is shared primarily for inspiration. The solutions showcased here are not endorsed in any way by UNDP.
Find out more about the solutions, and browse other collections at solutions.sdg-innovation-commons.org/.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Accelerator Labs are a network of 91 social innovation labs operating in 115 countries, integrated in the UNDP system of country offices. Each lab is set up to explore local trends of sustainable development problems, to identify and map local solutions to those problems, and to test the potential for growth of those solutions. Examples of such findings include identifying informal economic systems and enabling the people who use them to acquire loans even though they don’t have a formal banking history or techniques of water reclamation and reuse for farming in water-scarce areas. The Accelerator Labs document such initiatives, bring the public and officials’ attention to them, and work to help them grow.
Beyond the Accelerator Labs, UNDP works in 170 countries and territories in partnerships with other UN agencies, governments, the private sector and civil society to build resilience and accelerate indigenous (domestic) public sector innovation towards meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.