Bus LIDE - Roving Innovation Lab

While over 90% of small businesses are informal in Haiti, youth unemployment rates in urban zones are almost 60%. Young entrepreneurs encounter a lack of access to traineeships, business services, and transportation. Responding to these challenges for young entrepreneurs from disadvantaged neighborhoods in Port-au-Price, UNDP Haiti created the LIDE project which has turned a bus into a roving innovation lab.

The lab provides unemployed youth with a space to innovate and realize their ideas through micro-enterprises while reinforcing social and economic cohesion. The bus was launched during UNDP’s SHIFT Week of Innovation Action where developers from the national university consulted with local youth to create an app which would facilitate the business development journey of LIDE participants, along with local entrepreneurs who motivated the community with their stories. Participants access training and advisory services with local mentors, receive Haitian-made tablets with the app developed during SHIFT week, and seed funding via a local micro-finance institution and a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.

Over 300 youth signed up for LIDE. The 40 youth selected to take part in the project have since gone through three training sessions, totaling over 100 hours.