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Denmark contributes to new UNICEF Innovation Fund
07.05.2015 20:50
Denmark is one of two founding funders for new fund created to accelerate innovative programs and projects that reduce inequities.
NEW YORK, 7 May 2015 – UNICEF today launched an Innovation Fund and
a Global Innovation Center to bring to scale creative and cost-reducing approaches to better the lives of the poorest children. Denmark is one of the key contributors to the new Innovation Fund that aims to test new ideas and take them to scale, if they prove sustainable.
Approximately 300 innovative projects are under development across the UNICEF network, focussing on the agency’s strategic priorities – health, education, HIV/AIDS, sanitation, nutrition, child protection and social inclusion. UNICEF country offices that are piloting innovation programmes can apply to the Innovation Fund – a pooled funding mechanism – for funding that will allow them to generate sufficient evidence for future expansion across countries or regions. The IF model is based on successful venture investment structures including a focus on early-stage investments, a portfolio approach, and meeting selection criteria for investment.
Denmark and the Walt Disney Company have been key contributors to the Innovation Fund that currently holds $4 million. To date, Denmark has supported innovation in UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women, through innovation facilities of DKK 86 mio.
Innovation is important to Denmark, as it can change the way we do development. In 2013, the Danish government therefore decided to provide the UN agencies working on innovation, including UNICEF, with extra funds earmarked for innovation. Denmark became the first donor to support UNICEF’s Innovation Fund.
“I encourage other governments - like Denmark - to support both politically and financially the innovative ideas that are being developed by UNICEF and other UN funds and programs”, said ambassador Ib Petersen, Permanent Representative of Denmark to the United Nations, at the launch on Thursday. “Innovation is risky business, because we never know in advance if the new ideas will work. We need to be willing to take risks and accept failures as long as we learn from these failures.”
UNICEF’s Executive Director, Anthony Lake, emphasized donors such as Denmark for allowing the organization to be focused in the next phase of development.
“UNICEF’s Innovation team has spent the last seven years harnessing the energy and creativity of new, innovative ideas to empower countries to deliver the services that will save children’s lives, said Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director. We are lucky to have found partners that will allow us to be more focused in the next phase of development. This requires technical innovation, of course, but also innovation in how we think about development.”
Some of the projects supported by Denmark include the U-report that has been used to combat Ebola in Liberia and Sierra Leone. U-Report is a mobile phone, SMS-based program designed to empower people in countries where UNICEF works to speak out on issues that they care about in their communities, encourage citizen-led development, and create positive change.
In addition to the Innovation Fund, the Global Innovation Center based in Nairobi, Kenya, was also launched. UNICEF’s Global Innovation Centre will be overseen by the GIC Steering Committee, which includes the Philips Foundation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Republic of Korea , and the UNICEF National Committees of Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. |