In 2017 UNDP Pakistan made a commitment to invest in innovative solutions for development. They accelerated their support in 2019 by launching UNDP Innovation-Accelerator Lab Pakistan. The Lab is funded by the State of Qatar and the Federal Republic of Germany, and is part of a global network of labs serving in 114 countries.

The development work needs a fresh approach as the old system is not able to come up with long term sustainable solutions. Crises today are multidisciplinary in nature as it impacts economy, human health, and social well-being all at once. Development must take a new perspective on the design of programming that achieves systemic transformation through diverse partnership from government to private sector, and creative thinkers.

UNDP Innovation-Accelerator Lab is a dedicated learning space to reimagine development solutions. The team works with the country office programmes and partners to explore and experiment new approaches, from ethnography to design, to find inclusive and human centered approaches for meaningful change.

Mashable Pakistan Lab talks to Beenisch Tahir, Head of UNDP Innovation-AccLab Pakistan and Exploration Lead. She provides strategic support to the team and UNDP Country Office (CO), to identify emerging trends and build partnerships to scale solutions developed by the AccLab team and CO units.

Tahir has been working in the humanitarian and development sector for the past 10 years in the fields ofcommunications, ICT4D, innovation and partnerships. Beenisch has an MSc in Social Policy Development from London School of Economics.