Hi there UNICEFStories Readers.
In case you missed our latest blogs, here’s a recap of some of the top stories published on UNICEF Innovation’s blog during July. Click away.
Clik here to view.
Drones For Good – Participants in Vanuatu Drone Trial Take Vaccines to the Skies
On July 27, the Government of Vanuatu – with the support of UNICEF – announced the participants for the first phase of the Vanuatu drone trial in August 2017. Participants will travel to Vanuatu to demonstrate the performance of their drones. Learn more here.
Malawi Drone Corridor: Now open on a rolling basis
The Government of Malawi, in partnership with UNICEF, invite the drone industry, universities, and individuals to test humanitarian drone applications in the main areas of Imagery, Connectivity, and Transport – improving the lives of Malawi’s children. Interested? Want to know more information? Find out more here.
Exploring the future of 21st century skills
From June 27-29, UNICEF’s Global Innovation Center (GIC) hosted its 5th Advisory Committee Meeting (GIC AC5) with UNICEF’s Vietnam Country Office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. This meeting explored the future of 21st century skills, the opportunities and challenges young children face and how to prepare the children and young, for the workforce of tomorrow. In an effort to capture it, we’d like to share some of the highlights here.
UNICEF Innovation’s Blair Palmer Joins New Class Of NASA Datanauts
NASA’s Fall 2017 Datanauts were announced on July 25, and UNICEF’s Office of Innovation will be brightly by Blair Palmer, a galactically talented member of our San Francisco team. Find out more about NASA’s Datanauts Programme here.
Making Technology Work For Everyone: An Interview with Entrepreneur Fred Ouko
Meet change maker Fred Ouko, an entrepreneur who works on providing access to job opportunities for persons with disabilities in Kenya. Learn more from him as he shares his views on the potential of design and innovation to shape the future of accessibility here.
The UNICEF Innovation Fund announces its next set of investments in open source technology solutions.
1. ilhasoft – Push, building a multi-lingual interactive chatbot
Ilhasoft is developing Push – an intelligent, interactive robot that can provide people with relevant, tailored information based on questions presented by people around the world. Push’s web platform will enable people to talk to the robot, ask questions and seek information, interactively. Read more here.
2. eKitabu – an open source, cross-platform e-reading system
Harnessing Universal Design principles, eKitabu is developing an open source and cross-platform, e-reading app that provides better access to learning for children with disabilities. For children who are blind or have a vision impairment, the app reads ebooks aloud. For the deaf or hard of hearing individuals, the app includes videos with local sign language. Today, lack of accessible textbooks limits children’s pathways to learning. Ebooks can open up the world to these students. Read more here.
3. Kimetrica – Method for Extremely Rapid Observation of Nutritional Status (MERON)
Kimetrica is developing MERON (Method for Extremely Rapid Observation of Nutritional Status), an application which uses facial recognition technology to detect malnutrition in children (aged 0-5) during humanitarian emergencies. MERON is intended to be a scalable alternative to the Mid-Upper Arm Circumference (MUAC) rapid assessment method, which requires training and supervision to reduce errors in application here.