Protecting Children from Air Pollution: Open-Source Air Quality Machine Learning in SE Asia
How Machine Learning and AI solutions enable real time decision making to protect children’s health
UNICEF EAPRO ICT and Digital Innovations team – Frontier Data Lab Digital Transformation | UNICEF East Asia and Pacific
In partnership with:
UNICEF Lao PDR Country Office UNICEF Lao People's Democratic Republic
Lao PDR Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment
Lao PDR Ministry of Education and Sports
AirGradient Air Quality Monitors
Frontier Technology for Every Child: How UNICEF and the Lao PDR Government use new technologies and low-cost sensors to estimate air quality for every village in the country.
On Wednesday, 7 May 2025, UNICEF’s Frontier Data Lab and UNICEF Lao PDR Country Office hosted a side event in the margins of the 10th Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals, exploring how UNICEF and Lao PDR used affordable sensors and open data to create a real-time AI model estimating air quality.
Air pollution significantly burdens health systems and increases national healthcare spending. It affects children's learning when they miss school due to pollution-related illnesses, limiting their potential and lifelong productivity. Parents often miss work to care for sick children, impacting economic growth. Decisive action is needed to protect children's health and learning, as the cost of inaction is immense.
UNICEF and partners have made significant strides in estimating air quality using an open-source machine learning model in the East Asia Pacific Region. This side event explored how UNICEF’s Frontier Data Lab and UNICEF Lao PDR Country Office leverage machine learning to empower governments in the region with real-time decision-making power based on air quality data. This enables them to protect children's health and education from high pollution levels and improves policy and action.
The presenters highlighted how with limited resources, the use of new technologies can leapfrog countries’ ability to collect data to inform policies and make real-time decisions, protecting children from the effects of air pollution and creating a positive ripple effect on education, economic development and climate change mitigation.
This initial effort is a step towards a scalable, global solution for air quality estimation, aligning with the Global Digital Compact and the UN's commitment to leveraging technology and AI to advance the Sustainable Development Goals.
Implemented by UNICEF in collaboration with government partners in Lao PDR, this project is supported by the strategic partnership between Arm and UNICEF Office of Innovation to develop impactful AI solutions that address challenges affecting the lives of children and their communities.
