Innovation
Innovation for UNICEF is to take emerging approaches and tools, and to test how they can be applied to address the challenges facing children.
The challenge
Innovation for UNICEF is to take emerging approaches and tools, and to test how they can be applied to address the challenges facing children.
UNICEF Pacific uses technologies and new approaches to:
Provide life-saving information and services
Vanuatu Drone Trial: UNICEF supported the Vanuatu Ministry of Health to test using drones to deliver vaccines to children living on remote islands.
Real-Time Monitoring: UNICEF leverages mobile technologies to enable real-time data collection and mass communication with target end-users and to strengthen service provisions in various sectors. This includes RapidPro, an open source two-way communication tool, which is being used to collect data via Short Message Service (SMS) in Education and Emergency sectors in Fiji, Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Vanuatu and Tonga.
The solution
Engage young people in change
U-Report: U-Report is a social messaging tool designed for young people, and is being used in 60 countries by more than 7.5 million young people. U-Report provides an opportunity for young people to participate in issues that matter to them and to be engaged as positive agents of change. In the Pacific, Kiribati started the U-Report programme in 2019.
Plastic recycling: With the Precious Plastic open source plastic recycling machines, the WASH in Schools programme is being strengthened to develop schools’ capacity to create products out of recycled plastic collected by young people in the community.
Help UNICEF meet children’s needs today and tomorrow
Youth-led innovation: In collaboration with UNDP in the Pacific, young people are invited to a platform where they can be trained on social innovation skills and entrepreneurial mindsets in order to develop innovative solutions to issues they face.