UNICEF is committed to doing all it can to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in partnership with governments, civil society, business, academia and the United Nations family – and especially children and young people.
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In 2017, innovation is vital to improving the state of the world's children. The speed at which global problems -- from disease outbreaks, to the global refugee crisis, to millions of out-of-school children -- disrupt the lives of children around the world is only getting faster. UNICEF innovates in order to stay agile and find solutions to the evolving challenges affecting all children.
Innovation at UNICEF is driven by an interdisciplinary team of individuals around the world tasked with identifying, prototyping, and scaling technologies and practices that strengthen UNICEF’s work for children. Innovations range from new ways to structure programmes to new products and technologies.
To create these solutions, UNICEF works with a network of global problem solvers who can find new ways to accelerate results that reduce inequities for children. These innovators are also creating a new global infrastructure of openness, of collaboration across borders, of exploration, and of innovation for equity.
We see, in countries around the world, young people pushing the boundaries of what’s possible and creating a future they want – and the future is appearing in the places that UNICEF works before it happens in the "global north."
The Office of Innovation specifically looks to form partnerships around frontier technologies (like drones and UAVs, blockchain, 21st century skills, urban technologies, new banking tools, or 3D-Printing) that exist at the intersection of $100 billion business markets and 1 billion person needs – and to identify how they can grow and scale profitably and inclusively.
Access to information is essential to achieving equity. The biggest change that we need to foster, and that is happening already in some places, is the push to connect the world's most marginalized populations so they have access to information, to opportunity, and to choice. This underlies a great deal of the innovation agenda – because without access to information and connectivity young people are stifled and put at risk.
Within UNICEF, innovation is led by:
UNICEF's approach to innovation is based on our Innovation Principles, which highlight the importance of designing with the end-user, understanding local ecosystems, designing for scale, and using open source technology and open data.
