“A day is very unpredictable for us, we are trying to have a blank slate to come up with a crafty way to better understand solutions, to better scale solutions or to see where we can improve our learnings as an organisation and network.” 

In this episode, host and GDL member Khaldun Al Saadi, sat down with fellow member Omar Jagne to discuss his work in the context of informal markets. Omar’s work life is marked by unpredictability and uncertainty, as he is Team Lead and Head of Experimentation at the Accelerator Lab at UNDP in The Gambia. He talks about unconventional UNDP partners such as start-ups and scale-ups and elaborates on their challenges of digitally transforming informal markets in The Gambia. Omar sums up his own point of view briefly: “It has to be a co-creation and co-learning process to have any kind of meaningful intervention that would tackle business continuity for market traders.” Omar also lets us in on his most treasued sources of inspiration.

You can find an article on “Experimentation into Informalities – Digitally Transforming Informal Markets in The Gambia” here. Further information on the work of the Accelerator Lab can be found on their blog.

New episodes of the podcast are realeased every three weeks. Host Khaldun seeks to get an inside look at the perspectives of young diplomats, experts and activists on the vast array of global challenges we face today by sitting down with them for a virtual cup of coffee.

To learn about the answers please make yourself a cup of coffee and listen to the new episode on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or by downloading the episode here.

About the authors:

Khaldun Al Saadi is a project coordinator with strong experience and interests in the fields of immigration, equality, integration and radicalization prevention.

Omar Jagne is an entrepreneur, founder, CEO of the Making Our Visions and Aspirations Reality group and currently working as a Community Engagement Specialist at UNDP.

Published on March 3, 2022.

Visual credit: Julie August