Innovation Across Borders: Guatemala
Andreana Castellanos of Afinidata discusses co-creating an innovation ecosystem with UNICEF to apply artificial intelligence to early childhood development in Latin America
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Across 190 countries and territories, UNICEF colleagues and partners are on the frontlines of the greatest challenges affecting the lives of children and young people. Innovation Across Borders highlights the experiences, successes and learnings of innovation champions, committed to making positive social impact.
What first inspired you to found Afinidata, and what gap did you see that needed to be filled?
Volunteering in a rural community in Guatemala I met a young girl who told me she thought her only option in life was to become a farmer. That moment stayed with me because I believe every child should be able to dream without limits. I later learned how critical the early years are in shaping a child’s future, affecting health, graduation rates, adult income and overall wellbeing.
Decades of research show that home-visit activity programmes are among the most effective ways to support families during these years, but they are costly and difficult to scale. I founded Afinidata to close that gap. Our vision is to use technology to replicate the proven benefits of home visits and deliver personalized early childhood development support directly to families through tools they already use, like WhatsApp.
Why is innovation important to you?
Real change requires new models, creativity and evidence-based solutions. If we do not reinvent how families access support in affordable, scalable and culturally relevant ways, millions of children will continue to be left behind. We opted for AI early on because it was the best way to solve a real problem: delivering truly personalized guidance to each family.
How does AI power Afinidata, and what difference does it make for parents and families?
Our proprietary AI technology is designed specifically for early childhood development. It personalizes content by learning from caregiver responses and each child’s progress. Instead of generic advice based only on age, families receive activities through WhatsApp that are practical, relevant and easy to implement.
As a mother myself, I’ve come to understand firsthand the value of having a scientifically validated tool I can trust. Instead of spending hours researching what activities to do or whether a behaviour is normal, I can rely on personalized guidance that adapts to my child’s milestones and our family’s lifestyle.
Our AI also personalizes at the programme level. Governments and organizations often struggle with localization – as each region or ministry has unique needs and priorities – and our platform facilitates rapid adaptation through user feedback, ensuring that guidance remains relevant while still benefiting from the scalability of AI.
What were some of the biggest challenges you faced in turning the idea into a solution?
One major challenge was keeping families engaged over time, so we invested heavily in user research, tested different channels, such as mobile apps and WhatsApp, and refined our content to ensure it was always practical and easy to use.
We also had to overcome the difficulty of measuring impact in low-connectivity settings, which required building strong academic partnerships and designing rigorous evaluation methods, including a randomized controlled trial.
How did support from the UNICEF Venture Fund influence Afinidata’s growth and direction?
The UNICEF Venture Fund was a turning point, providing early investment, credibility, mentorship and visibility. With this support, we reached hundreds of thousands of families, improved our technology and strengthened our business model. It also helped us connect with UNICEF country offices to guide our growth and evaluate impact.
Can you tell us about your partnership with UNICEF Bolivia?
This was a true milestone because it demonstrated that our solution could move beyond pilots to become a national programme. With UNICEF Bolivia’s support, we went from a municipal pilot reaching 2,000 children to a nationwide, government-backed initiative.
Today, families across the country have access to our digital platform and learning guides, which are integrated into the public system. This experience showed that Afinidata can scale nationally and that innovation can be embedded into government structures. We believe this can be a model for other UNICEF country offices and partner governments on how to take an innovation from pilot to national scale.
