Challenge statement
Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge.
Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.
BIG BET
Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)
"Our challenge is that women in Jordan’s craft sector often produce items that lack market appeal due to limited design skills, weak market linkages, and low creative confidence. This restricts their income potential and undermines the sustainability of their work, despite growing demand for unique, high-quality handicrafts."
Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?
As part of the 2025 focus on adult learning and the circular economy, the Accelerator Lab is advancing socio-economic development and sustainability in Jordan. Adult learning builds a skilled workforce, while the circular economy promotes resource efficiency, waste recovery, and economic resilience. To support these goals, the lab launched an initiative to foster creative confidence as a driver of personal and professional growth. Empowering 15 women, the program encouraged them to innovate and express themselves artistically by transforming discarded materials into marketable products.
The Artistic Capacity Building for Product Innovation training offered a three-day structured program that covered artistic skills, creative thinking, and sustainable design. Participants engaged in hands-on activities, learning sketching, colour theory, and prototyping while integrating circular economy principles into product development. This initiative aimed at enhancing artistic abilities while offering practical insights into marketability and sustainable production.
Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.
The experiment is a result of observations from the tourism in Madaba research that highlighted a critical gap in the quality of high-quality, locally produced goods, which limits the country’s economic potential and appeal to tourists. This experiment seeks to address this gap by empowering women to create sustainable, high-quality products that not only meet market expectations but also reflect the rich cultural heritage of the region.
The experiment generates actionable insights and practical learnings that can directly benefit various projects run by the UNDP, particularly the upcoming permanent exhibition currently under construction by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Environment. By developing women’s creative confidence and sustainable production practices in Petra, this experiment provides a scalable model that can be adapted for Jordan’s Badia and adjacent rural communities.
The exhibition, which will promote and sell products year-round from over 4,500 local producers supported by community-based organizations, is expected to attract 1 to 1.5 million visitors annually and generate JD 4.5 million in revenue. Integrating the principles of creative confidence and circular economy learned from this experiment will equip local producers for the Badia region with enhanced skills in sustainable product development and marketing, thus supporting the exhibition’s goal of economic empowerment. This approach ensures that the exhibition not only promotes local products but also fosters a deeper cultural and environmental connection, enhancing the market appeal and sustainability of Badia’s unique offerings.
Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.
Through its Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) project, UNDP conducted a series of training sessions aimed at empowering women from the Jordan Valley. These sessions focused on developing and enhancing products that could foster sustainable livelihoods for local communities. To gain insights and improve future initiatives, the Accelerator Lab reached out to a sample of these women to learn more about their training experiences and explore ways to create an even more impactful program for the experiment.
The experiment will help understand the preferences and convenience of both consumers and producers, helping to bridge gaps in market demand. As part of this research, we will circulate an online survey to collect insights into consumer preferences and identify which types of products are most appealing to local and visiting audiences. Additionally, the experiment will explore potential partnerships by linking the women participants to local retailers such as Al Afghani to expand their market reach.
Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?
The Accelerator Lab offers a unique, hands-on approach to boosting the marketability of women’s handicrafts through creative skills training, sustainable design, and market insights. Unlike traditional programs, we rapidly test and adapt solutions—like color theory workshops and upcycling techniques—to bridge the gap between cultural heritage and tourist demand. Our experiments, such as the Artistic Capacity Building training, prove that empowering women with design skills and confidence directly translates to more competitive products and income opportunities.
Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?
"Jordan’s women artisans have skills but struggle to create marketable crafts. Our Accelerator Lab boosts their creative confidence & design skills to bridge the gap between tradition & tourist demand—turning handmade goods into income. #CircularEconomy #WomenEmpowerment"
Learning questions
Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?
Does building creative confidence through artistic capacity training enable women artisans in Jordan to create more marketable products from discarded materials?
To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?
Test
Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Creative Confidence Training Modules: Conducted 3-day intensive workshops (Day 1: color theory/sketching, Day
2: ideation, Day 3: prototyping) with pre/post CSE measurements
Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?
Post-experiment: Revealed actionable thresholds (e.g., 79% confidence boost → minimal for standalone success).
Scalability: Identified non-artistic barriers (e.g., digital literacy) for future iterations.
8Decent work and economic growth
11Sustainable cities and communities
12Responsible consumption and production
Comments
Log in to add a comment or reply.