Our results - Projects
Learn More About Our Ongoing projects
Our results - projects
Crowdfunding Academy in Ukraine is a three months project dedicated to entrepreneurs from conflict-affected areas in Donbas. The ultimate goal of the initiative is to rally all available resources to help improve the livelihoods of internally displaced persons (IDPs) and host communities throughout Ukraine. Experts from UNDP Alternative Finance Lab and Terra Hub NGO, who created the concept o...
We have recently started to work on the White Paper with Blockchain - the world's leading Bitcoin software company. Together we are working on better understanding the development space and evaluating how this technological innovation can bring about radical transparency & efficiency in the flow of aid.The paper is exploring six key sectors - trade finance, remittances, digital ID, development...
As remittances are an important part of the economic impact of migration, in Serbia we're working on designing a proof of concept for remittance transfers over blockchain. The program's goal is to find a cheaper cross-border transfer system which cuts out intermediaries such as Western Union, and targeted toward specific needs in Serbia. In this project, we are working together with AidTech - a bl...
To tackle the challenges and negative impacts of long-term youth unemployment, UNDP together with Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra and the Government of Serbia is designing a Youth Employment Bond pilot with the Social Impact Bond (SIB) mechanism.Social Impact Bond is a result-based financial instrument for impact investing, where private investments are intended to create a positive social or enviro...
Ana and Maja are two girls whose great passion is manufacturing quality beer. Up to March 2016, their passion was just a hobby, but then they came to an idea of founding the first women-run cooperative craft brewery in Croatia - Brlog. Craft beer is a preservative free, unfiltered and unpasteurized beer. Such a beer has higher nutritional and, most people believe, culinary value. Through the crow...
Alternative Finance Lab (AltFin Lab) is helping UNDP Bosnia and Herzegovina and their national and regional partners in the Vrbas region in designing an Forecast Based Financing mechanism that seeks to attract insurance investment into addressing the risk on the basis of the forecast based triggers.Based on the Red Cross/Crescent Climate Center Forecast Based Financing model UNDP Bosnia and Herzeg...
In Moldova, we are testing to find out if Blockchain can provide a more effective way of managing the United Nations car fleet. On this project we cooperate with EmerCoin - a digital currency and blockchain service platform and with DeePlace company. The blockchain technology is to demonstrate the possibility of a more effective way of managing the UN car fleet in an emergency situation. Blockchai...
UNDP'S 1ST GLOBAL CROWDFUNDING ACADEMYUNDP's 1st Global Crowdfunding Academy took place in December of 2015 in Istanbul. Inspiring projects that ranged from community green solutions to peacebuilding and poverty reduction were presented by 11 teams from around the world.Global Crowdfunding Academies are envisaged as 3-6 month service where the team identifies a pipeline of potential ideas, develop...
In Tajikistan, we are working with BitSPark on investigating possibilities to transfer remittances money from Tajikistan workers from Russia to Tajikistan using Bitcoins. Remittances are a growing and critical lifeline for many people and countries around the world, as demonstrated clearly by Tajikistan where 50% of the country GDP relies on remittance income. ...
Mateja Kuhar couldn't stop thinking about the idea of developing a pen from recycled organic waste for more than two years. After she noticed how much organic material was being binned by a local coffee shop and flower shops, she finally shaped the idea of ??making Fabula – organic pencil. This pencil is created from the used tea leaves and coffee grounds from cafes, together with petals discarded...
Buba bar - extra chromosome for extra coffee'' crowdfunding campaign was launched with the aim of opening the first coffee house in Croatia to employ people with Down Syndrome. The Bubamara Association needed to raise 10,000 USD to make Buba Bar a reality.Their mission was to improve the quality of life for the intellectually challenged and to evolve the Croatian societal views and acceptance of t...
Bangladesh is a country with a population of over 160 million people, and millions of youth not in education, employed, or in training. On the other side, the need for good jobs in Bangladesh is high. The Youth Employment through Skills (YES) initiative came up with the solution for this huge problem. YES is an educational programme that works with Bangladeshi youth to teach them basic coding skil...
''Build the 1st Inclusive Playground in Tirana'' is a campaign that aimed to provide, for the first time in Albania, a playground that is suitable for children with special needs and abilities.United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Albania, jointly with the Municipality of Tirana launched this campaign to advocate for greater awareness towards equality of treatment for kids with special ne...
Guzgef Solar School project aimed at improving education facilities in rural Tajikistan and provide a better education for children. Almost 70% of the population of Tajikistan live in rural and mountainous areas where electricity is available for no more than three hours a day. The country's lack of consistent grid power means that it is too dark and cold to study in the school during the winter m...
"How can we finance the next 15 years of development work? In what ways should true innovators be engaged in the development process? How viable is impact investment for business and governments alike?" - these were only a few of the many questions discussed at the very first global summit on impact investment for development, held in Yerevan on March 21-22. The summit, has been hosted by the Unit...
Taste of Home is a culinary-cultural-research project that introduces the culture, customs and countries of origin of refugees and migrants in Croatia. Taste of Home initiative wanted to help refugees and migrants earn a living and become settled in Croatia. The crowdfunding campaign was launched in November 2015. With the help of over 500 backers, they have raised $ 19,649 and enabled financing f...
Global Crowdfunding Academy is a program aimed at training UNDP staff to learn to conduct their own crowdfunding campaigns and thus contribute to 2030 Agenda and its goals. The interest for this year's academy was twice as large as last year and can be understood as an indication that new funding mechanisms are beginning to gain larger ground in CO operations across the globe. This year's Global ...
''Bring Water for Life'' was UNDP Indonesia's first crowdfunding campaign. This initiative is contributing to the achievement of the 17 globally committed Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly in increasing access to clean water and sanitation, to end poverty, fight inequality and climate action. The campaign was launched on World Water day on March 22nd, 2016 and was aimed at gatheri...
''STEMI'' is a robot you can make on your own at home. He can teach you much scientific, technological, engineering and mathematical concepts in a fun and easy way. By building STEMI you can learn 3D modelling, electronics, Arduino programming and mobile app programming. STEMI came as a spin-off of a non-profit organisation "Wind of Knowledge". It is an educational technology company that aims to...
Global Crowdfunding Academy is a program aimed at training UNDP staff to learn to conduct their own crowdfunding campaigns and thus contribute to 2030 Agenda and its goals. UNDP's 1st Global Crowdfunding Academy took place in December of 2015 in Istanbul. Inspiring projects that ranged from community green solutions to peacebuilding and poverty reduction were presented by 11 teams from around the ...
With the arrival of the 4th industrial revolution, new technologies will increasingly enable citizens to engage with governments, voice their opinions and coordinate their efforts. Because of the increasingly changing world of today, governments, citizens and development actors alike need to quickly adapt, get a better understanding of advanced technologies, and learn how they can best be used for...
Crowdfunding Academy Croatia is a non-formal educational programme on developing crowdfunding campaigns aimed for training cooperatives, municipalities and cities, start-up companies, entrepreneurs, craftsmen and all citizens with interesting and innovative projects. The first Crowdfunding Academy took place in spring of 2015 in Zagreb, Croatia with 14 participating teams. The projects range from ...
Crowdfunding Academy Croatia is a non-formal educational programme on developing crowdfunding campaigns aimed for training cooperatives, municipalities and cities, start-up companies, entrepreneurs, craftsmen and all citizens with interesting and innovative projects. The second Crowdfunding Academy took place in summer of 2016 in Zagreb, Croatia with 19 participating teams. All of our teams had gr...
Elderly centre in Balykchy town in Kyrgyzstan was set up by a local non-governmental organisation to provide a gathering place for retired and elderly people who don't have relatives or access to a social network. But, with temperatures dipping way below zero, the centre is largely inaccessible during late fall and winter season due to the poor heating system. This created a break in an otherwise ...
The idea of tackling the problem of low fruit intake in Moldova came during a banal lunch. We were intrigued by the paradox that in a country that is a regional "garden", abundant in fruits and vegetables, the average consumption of these goodies constituted only 60% of the minimum WHO recommended quantity.We then thought about connecting the private sector represented by the fruit producers with...
Hardly a day goes by in the development world without hearing the term "platform". Like in the business world, it's becoming harder for any development organization to provide a single service or product that will make broad impact. Airbnb doesn't build homes, it creates a network that brings together host and guest.Likewise, it's impossible to eradicate poverty – a complex phenomenon – without c...
The Day of Big Waves in February in Banja Luka. What? Yes, we have the first successful crowdfunding campaign in Bosnia and Herzegovina by "Talas" magazine team. Talas means wave! The campaign name was "Swim upstream" or #PlivajUzvodno. There is no ocean in Banja Luka to make waves or to swim, but Talas magazine team has done their job! They started a quarterly print magazine back ...
The Benefits of Crowd UrbanismBased on lessons learned – some of which are mentioned below – crowdfunding can bridge the gap between top-down and bottom-up ways of thinking.The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Alternative Finance Lab has been working and experimenting with crowdfunding now more than five years, by developing campaigns, workshops, booklets and observing how this new ...
Impact bonds, one of the pay-for-success financial mechanisms bringing impact investors, private, public and third sector organizations together to solve social and development issues, have recently faced some criticism about their complex nature, which can lead to a long design phase and high related transaction costs. We, at UNDP Istanbul Hub and Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra, put our heads toge...
UNDP AltFinLab partnered with Blockchain.com, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and the World Economic Forum (WEF) to explore how block chain technology works, but also how it is already being used to pursue conventional ends. The culmination of that partnership is in the form of a white paper titled, The Future is Decentralised.We're excited to share how this technology has brought new levels of efficie...
Alternative Finance Lab (AltFin Lab) is an internal startup, run out of UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub for Europe and CIS