Frontier Futures for Children: A UNICEF Office of Innovation Podcast

Frontier Futures for Children is a six-part podcast series from the UNICEF Office of Innovation which explores what it takes to turn a promising idea into impact at scale. Hosted by freelance tech journalist Maddy Savage and UNICEF’s Yemi Lufadeju, the podcast brings together 29 thought leaders, innovators and decision makers from 17 countries, working at the intersections of frontier technology, equity and social impact. 

From promising idea to real impact 

In rural India, CareNX’s portable monitor helps health workers check a baby’s heartbeat far from the nearest hospital. In Lao PDR, AirGradient’s sensors help schools decide when it is safe for children to learn and play outside. In Timor-Leste, Similie’s early warning systems give communities time to prepare for flooding. The founders behind these solutions join the series to discuss what it took to put them to work, and what it will take to reach more people.

The conversations go beyond the technology itself to examine the decisions that determine whether it succeeds in the real world. Who pays for a solution after the pilot ends? What makes investors take a chance on technology built for underserved markets? How do communities shape the tools intended for them? And what happens when a promising idea meets the realities of infrastructure, regulation, funding and scale?

Across the series, guests explore scaling the hardest places, the health of women and girls, blockchain in vaccine and food supply chains, crisis preparedness, AI in education, and classrooms built to withstand heatwaves and air pollution. Guests draw on what they have built, backed, researched and observed to explore where innovation succeeds, where it stalls, and what can help good ideas go further.