Innovation Portfolios

Children are the least responsible for climate change, yet they will bear the greatest burden of its impact. The worsening effects of climate change mean that children face both the immediate impacts of climate-exacerbated humanitarian emergencies and the slower-onset impacts such as water scarcity and disease burden. For children who are already disadvantaged, the risks of climate change are even higher: as crises become more common, poorer families will face even greater difficulties recovering from these increasingly frequent shocks. The climate crisis is a child rights crisis, and time is running out to make the transformations necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Innovation can and must play a central role in finding solutions to this crisis and accelerating the impact of our work in protecting children from the effects of climate change, placing their needs at the center of environmental strategies, and empowering them as agents of change.

With 1.2 billion adolescents globally – the largest cohort in history – 90 per cent of whom live in low- and middle-income countries and 125 million in conflict-affected areas, the urgency to empower young people as change agents has never been greater. We advance field-tested innovations that build young people's leadership, agency and demand for accountability, notably through Fundoo, a digital life coach that supports young people through their empowerment journey in both development and humanitarian settings. Youth have clearly voiced their desire for skills, knowledge, creativity and trusted information – and this portfolio delivers solutions that enable them to take control of their future. 

On gender equality, we tackle the digital gender gap head-on through the Game Changers Coalition, a flagship programme leveraging innovation to fast-track inclusion and diversity in video games and tech. Building on the success of the Skills4Girls initiative which has reached nearly 6 million girls in 22 countries, the Game Changers Coalition collaborates with the video games industry and allied tech sectors to help equip a generation of girls and boys with the STEAM skills they need to thrive as coders, designers and leaders in a safer, more inclusive digital world. 

We are committed to transforming humanitarian action through a problem-based approach to the most urgent challenges facing children. Over 473 million children – nearly one in five globally – are living in or fleeing conflict zones, exposed to violence, displacement and disrupted essential services. In response to these challenges, we take a systems approach to scaling innovation across countries. This includes driving humanitarian policy to create responsive and forward-looking frameworks that improve how assistance is designed and delivered. We work in collaboration with other actors in the humanitarian innovation ecosystem, investing in the deployment of locally led initiatives that can be adapted and scaled. 

The focus of UNICEF's work in education is on ensuring children are "ready" for the key transitions during their learning journey. Age 5; ready to start school, based on the importance of Early Childhood Education, age 10; ready to access the academic curriculum by having basic literacy and numeracy skills and age 18; ready to enter the labour market/contribute to their community. The availability and potential of technology means that digital learning should be part of a basic basket of essential services for every child and young person. UNICEF is strategically placed to broker innovation in education. The need for innovation in education is acute: even before COVID-19, traditional service delivery channels were strained with learning increasingly taking place in new ways and places, including outside of the classroom and remotely. Focused investment in innovation will support Reimagine Education to ensure every child can access education.

Global inequities in access to maternal and child health services affect pregnancy and childbirth outcomes, routine immunizations, and protection against sexually transmitted infections. The UNICEF Health Innovation Portfolio addresses these challenges by equipping local health workers with high-resolution data and advanced analytics to better understand and meet health needs. It also supports providing health services that are tailored to the needs of adolescents, including sexual and reproductive health and rights. 

Children, adolescents and their families continue to face significant barriers to the availability, acceptability and accessibility of quality mental health and psychosocial support services. Mental health remains one of the most neglected and underfunded global health challenges: government spending averages just two per cent of health budgets while in low- and middle-income countries there is often just one mental health professional per million young people. In partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO), we are accelerating country-level action through a catalytic programme that promotes nurturing environments and scales up community-based, multisectoral approaches that integrate health, education and social protection systems. 

More than 1 in 4 people lack access to safely managed drinking water and nearly half the world’s population lacks access to safely managed hygiene and sanitation. To speed up progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of safe water and sanitation for all by 2030 amid climate change, conflict and global development funding constraints, innovation is more important than ever. From using cutting-edge technology to locate water underground, to unlocking millions in innovative financing for toilets, the UNICEF Sustainable WASH Innovation Hub is working to accelerate the scaling of innovations to transform access for the world's most vulnerable children.