Delivering for the UN and those we serve is only possible through accelerating innovation – we must embrace new ideas, analytical thinking, and strategic foresight to increase our impact.
A joint initiative of Purpose and the United Nations, Verified is a crisis communications model designed to adeptly respond to intersecting crises in an era of prolific mis- and disinformation. Heavily based on behavioral science insights, it cuts through the noise around global crises and deliver critical fact-based advice and information.
In 2017, the government of Argentina set as a priority the formalization of domestic work through registration to social security – a human right and a key means of accessing decent work. The ILO worked with the Ministry of Labour to design and implement a behavioural intervention. The project started with a diagnosis of the behavioural drivers of non-registration, based on which we drafted a letter to employers asking them to comply with their legal obligation to register the worker. In a randomized field experiment, the Ministry of Labour sent the letters to around 100,000 households, and this was compared to a control group of 80,000 households that received no letter. The letter led to an increase of 8.9% in the rate of registration. The experience showed the potential of behavioural science as a tool to accelerate progress to SDG 8.8, and changed the lives of domestic workers.
The ICAO Innovation Fair will allow representatives of States, international organizations, industry, private sector, academia, aviation research, United Nations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to have substantive conversations on innovation in aviation. This edition will focus on how the experimentation and development of innovative digital technologies or services for aviation bring value to the sector and contribute to States achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Primero is an open-source platform used by social workers, child protection and gender-based violence professionals to manage case and incident data. It is a certified digital public good in use in more than 50 countries and helps improve service delivery and referrals while ensuring that sensitive data is protected. This article focuses on the East Asia Pacific region, where Primero is being used by frontline workers at scale to connect children with vital services.
PortWatch (https://portwatch.imf.org/) is an open platform designed to monitor and simulate disruptions to maritime trade flows. The platform helps policymakers and the public assess the impact of realized and future trade shocks, such as natural disasters, based on real-time data sourced from the UN Global Platform (UNGP).
More recently, PortWatch provided alaysis on trade disruptions in the Red Sea, which has been featured in the media such as Financial Times.
The platform allows users to explore how global supply chains are exposed to present and future disruptions to port activity. Users can simulate the indirect spillover effects of port disruptions to other countries in the maritime trade network. Spillover analysis reveals which countries and sectors are at risk of experiencing trade disruptions, which can help inform timely responses to shocks.
PortWatch is a collaborative project between the IMF and the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford, in cooperation with ESRI, the UNGP, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization.
The humanitarian crisis in Nigeria continues to be one of the most severe and complex globally. The CrisisNet kit offers a world of communication to humanitarians to power their response — all in just one box.
The Gender Data Lab (GDL) initiative aims to establish a dedicated team within existing government structures, such as National Statistical Offices, to accelerate gender data availability and promote evidence-based policymaking.
WFP’s EMPACT (EMPowerment in ACTion) programme is a digital livelihoods programme delivering a blended curriculum that combines technical and soft skills training curriculum through a learn-and-earn model that also connects trainees to digital work opportunities. EMPACT was launched at the Kibera Town Center in 2021 following the socio-economic impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, more than 1,000 youth have been trained under the programme with 41 percent earning money from online work.
WFP has invested in MEZA – which translates to ‘table’ in Swahili – an artificial intelligence (AI) solution that uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to decode handwritten medical data into machine-readable information. The solution also assists in consolidating this data into the national government’s health database to support accurate and timely reporting on health treatment for effective management of acute malnutrition. MEZA is designed to specifically support remote health centres that have limited access to electricity and internet, preventing them from using the Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system currently being deployed in the country.
H2Grow is WFP’s hydroponics initiative that brings locally adapted and affordable hydroponic solutions to vulnerable communities. WFP is leveraging on learnings to provide technical support to local farmers implementing hydroponics. The Innovation Unit is exploring blended finance models that will contribute to reducing the cost of hydroponics to facilitate scale and broad adoption of the solution. The Unit is also supporting a global Community of Practice around hydroponics through the H2Grow Platform, and the roll-out of hydroponics training for farmers through the Hydro App.
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