| Overview : Background Over the past year, the UNDP Accelerator Lab for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean has been conducting stakeholder outreach consultations as a means of sensing, identifying and analyzing challenges and solutions in the Blue Economy. Building on the UNDP Barbados and Eastern Caribbean multi-country office’s economic transformation pillar of the COVID – 19 Response Programme, the Accelerator Lab has narrowed in on a proposed portfolio of mini experiments focused on the Digitization of Micro, Small and Medium – Sized enterprises (MSMEs) in the Blue Economy. In response to widening digital divides exposed and exacerbated by COVID-19, the proposed concept will build on ongoing digital disruption and innovation activities with a focus on digital transformation. Through the creation of a mobile application which aims to increase sales of fisherfolk, improve data collection for decision making and connect fisherfolk directly to both customers such as the tourism based private sector and consumers as individuals, this app could better connect the supply and demand of the fisheries value chain. This proposed portfolio of mini experiments is in direct response to unearthed needs, trends and inputs gathered at the grassroots, policy and private sector level, both prior to and following the onset of COVID-19 during which the value of the Blue Economy to the Eastern Caribbean has been further realized. The range of opportunities and increasing potential of the Blue Economy as an approach to diversify the Eastern Caribbean economy while creating jobs, ensuring livelihoods and promoting environmental sustainability is at the core of the UNDP “Blue Economy for Green Islands” concept. At the global level, this concept aligns with UNDP’s digital strategy to harness digital’s potential for development based on two concepts: digitization and digitalization through two digital transformation pathways to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Scope of Work: Initial software development of BlueDigital, a web platform and connected mobile application that aims to digitize and expand fisherfolk operations by offering specific services to 4 key groups of stakeholders in the Blue Economy ecosystem and value chain. | 
