Girls empowerment

As part of a joint project between UNICEF and Al-Farabi Kazakh National University (KazNU), over 230 girls from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, all participants of the UniSat program, launched in March seven ultra-modern nanosatellites into the stratosphere to analyze air pollution in these countries. Nanosatellites are a class of small…

COVID-19 has impacted girls in unprecedented ways. The pandemic may result in more than 11 million girls dropping out, or lacking access to school . Reaching girls has never been more important, and digital platforms play a huge role in providing support and information to girls, through the devices they use. Oky, the period tracker app for girls…, 1: Create diverse user groups on familiar platforms, Ensure that remote engagement and user testing includes diversity in participants and local languages and is conducted on a digital platform that girls already use. For example, in West Bengal, 117 adolescent girls from 11 different schools in Kolkata joined the user groups. The selected schools covered a range of relevant demographics including…, 2: Engaging adults as moderators and supporters, Adult moderators are important to support young users and engage with parents. It is recommended to engage moderators who are already known to the girls participating in the remote user testing exercise. For safeguarding purposes, two moderators should be assigned per group. Splash worked with focal teachers from the participating schools to act…, 3: Spend time breaking the ice, To get the most out of remote testing groups it is important to build trust and rapport among users. Splash set up an initial introductory group Zoom call, followed by 5 days of interactions on WhatsApp, before the formal user testing process began. Informed consent was explained using Zoom calls and voice notes before consent was solicited.…, 4: Assign specific tasks and give time for responses, It is important to allow for sufficient time for the user testing process and to give girls ample opportunity to explore the app and provide feedback. Splash engaged girls to test Oky India over the course of a month, starting with a detailed introductions of the Oky app, followed by specific tasks for users to complete. Periodic touchpoints…, 5: Create space for verbal feedback, To conclude the user testing, Splash organized group wrap-up Zoom calls, in which users shared verbal feedback about their experience as testers. This was an important step, as insights not yet captured via WhatsApp chats or voice notes could be documented during these final calls. It was also an opportunity to express appreciation and thanks to…

The Middle East and North Africa have the world’s highest rates of youth unemployment. In Lebanon, 1 out of every 3 young people is unemployed. In Jordan, more than half of young people are unemployed. These numbers are expected to increase in the coming years as a result of the pandemic, worsening youth unemployment, which is already a major…

Oky is the world’s first digital menstruation app co-created with and for girls., The app provides evidence-based information about periods, puberty, and reproductive health in fun, creative and positive ways, straight into girls’ hands. Oky is tailored to girls’ lives, language and digital realities and is currently live in Mongolia and Indonesia, with more markets coming soon. Oky has been recognized by the Digital Public…, Raising the bar: girl-centered design, Digital public goods uphold internationally agreed principles for digital development . The first principle is to design with the user. But despite best intentions, teams habitually design with a user base that is predominantly male. Too often, girls are left out of co-creation, design, or product testing. What is different when designing with…, Matching tech to girl user requirements , Through this girl-centered design, Oky emerged as a gamified, light-weight application. It runs offline, is easy to navigate by design, and includes a read-out option and visual tutorials. It also allows for girls who share phones - either within the family or with peers - to have high data protection and privacy.   What might make your digital…, Building an open-source (girl) community, As a digital public good, Oky upholds particular standards - and in line with the DPG Standard, Oky is open source. The Oky source code is publicly available on GitHub .  Being open-source allows Oky to continuously be improved, through a global community. Oky’s community is growing rapidly, with implementation partners developing Oky in 12…, Breaking the digital glass ceiling, Innovation holds incredible promise to benefit more children and young people in new ways. This applies not just to technology, but to new partnerships, new ways of working, and new ways to scale promising services.  To reach more young people means girls must be deliberately included. Oky not only meets best practices for digital development, but…

In 2019, the UNICEF Innovation Fund launched its Smart Investing Initiative to build a diverse portfolio of startups, with an ambitious target of 50% female-led investments., Supporting female-led companies is more important than ever, COVID-19 has had far-reaching effects on jobs, economies, and livelihoods. It has also brought to light the many vulnerabilities and dependencies that women, especially work-from-home professionals, have had to contend with. Measures to contain the pandemic such as shelter-in-place policies, and school and day-care closures have had a…, Our progress to date, Since the launch of the Smart Investing Initiative , the Fund has been working to bring more diversity into the portfolio. Over the past year and a half, we have invested in 17 companies, 7 of which were female-led (41%), achieving a far superior percentage when compared to the industry average ( 2% - 9% globally ). UNICEF Innovation Fund female-…, Renewed commitment towards 50% investments in female-led companies, In the coming year, the Fund will:  Expand our diversity standard: while gender remains a priority, we aim to improve our diversity standard to include people with disabilities, and broader age groups Further strengthen our network: identify and collaborate with more ecosystem players supporting female-founders; and partner with other investors…

Cutting-edge nanosatellites, designed and built by dynamic young women and girls from across Kazakhstan, lifted-off to explore the cosmos today.   The satellites will take high-resolution images of earth and the stars. Sensors will gather data on radiation, pressure, gravity, light and gas composition. Reams of data will be beamed back to earth …

As a young girl in Almaty, Kazakhstan, Amina Sadu loved reading the encyclopedia. From dinosaurs to ancient Greek mythology, she immersed herself in study. In the book, The Myths of Ancient Greece, she discovered the story of the inventor Daedalus, who built wings made with wax so he and his son Icarus could fly. Daedalus warns Icarus not to fly…

"I want to know what to do when I get my first period and what changes to expect during puberty so I feel prepared, assured and confident to manage them.” “I want to know if it is dangerous if I miss a period and if irregular periods are abnormal so I can stop being anxious." Girls have important questions about their health, and every day more…

As with many countries on the African continent, the push in Zambia for all children to receive a primary school education over the last decade has led to a major increase in school attendance. But, as children progress through the school system, the number of girls drops away, with lack of money for school fees, limited knowledge, teenage…, Girls’ Zone, There is no magic bullet for keeping girls in school and out of child marriage. But providing information and making knowledge accessible is part of the solution, both to help adolescents make more informed choices about whether to stay in school, and to enable girls to avoid pitfalls like HIV and teenage pregnancy. In Zambia, UNICEF has been…, Girls helping girls and building a “Generation Unlimited”, Internet of Good Things is also supporting adolescents in Zambia by empowering them to be part of the change they want to see happen in the country and the world. Through the “Generation Unlimited – the future is yours” content module, young people are being provided with information on how to start a community project, build a team, run meetings…, There is still room for growth, Even though the response to the ‘Girls’ Zone’ and ‘Generation Unlimited – Future is yours’ modules has been very positive, young people are not shy when asked how the platform can improve. One of the first pieces of feedback the site received suggested adding more content, including pictures and multimedia, for those who cannot read very well.…

In photo: Khanysile Buthelezi, one of the female researchers on the biotechnology innovation team   In 1903 Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, and in 1911 became the first person (and only woman) to win the Nobel Prize twice. To this day, she is the only person to receive a Nobel prize in two different sciences. And yet…, Women in science, This is why, when Tanya Accone, head of UNICEF’s Global Innovation Centre (GIC), and Professor Janice Limson, Director of the Biotechnology Innovation Centre at Rhodes University in South Africa, met, they recognised an opportunity to do valuable work together. As two South Africa female leaders in the STEM field, they not only saw the chance to…, What does a scientist look like?, Khanysile Buthelezi, a female postgraduate student on the biotech team, who works on validating recent test breakthroughs, agrees that representation is important. “I’ve faced challenges in the past,” she says. “I noticed when I first started in science there weren’t people who looked like me. It was hard because you can’t relate to a lot of what…

Solutions should always be grounded in the people who use them. This is the value of “human-centered design”, an approach UNICEF is using to complement traditional expert- and research-based thinking. By understanding the people who will use the solutions — their wants and needs — UNICEF is developing creative, sustainable solutions they will…, Winning proposals included:, The Brown Paper Bag project, a digital online community for girls to discuss menstruation with their peers Raaji , a female character who tackles the shame and stigma surrounding periods and conveys powerful messages to young women in short animations MAAM, a fun and interactive virtual support network to de-stigmatize conversations around…