UNDP Malaysia Accelerator Lab

We are working on improving rural economic inclusion and building greener urban futures as our frontier challenges. We hope to amplify grassroots voices, stories and local action for greater impact.

Our team aspires to redefine development and build cities and communities that are more sustainable and resilient in our country, by listening to the grassroots, tapping into collective intelligence, and experimenting with innovative approaches.

We piloted an alternative e-commerce ecosystem for rural farmers and producers in Sabah to support business continuity during the pandemic, experimenting with green technology and traditional knowledge for food production in the process. Two reports relating to flexible work arrangements have been published to chart a path to a more equitable future of work post-pandemic. Over 1,000 employer and employee experiences in Malaysia’s work-from-home “natural experiment” were captured to inform the report.

On the environment frontier, our team conducted experiments on local engagement for environmental awareness, using animation, gamification, behavioural insights, local narratives, futures narratives and citizen science to inspire local action for river conservation, urban biodiversity and low-carbon cities.

For example, we are exploring urban biodiversity as a nature-based solution for a greener post-COVID future through our “Di Sekitar Kita” (Around Us) initiative. We engaged urban dwellers in citizen science to understand how they perceive and experience urban flora and fauna. We are also learning how local community groups protect urban rivers through placemaking.

The UNDP Malaysia Accelerator Lab was selected as a participant in the Japan SDGs Innovation Challenge. Through the Innovation Challenge, seven UNDP Accelerator Labs are collaborating with Japanese companies to co-develop and design models to test potential solutions to address specific development challenges problems identified by the Labs.