UNICEF, Tsinghua University to Ignite Conversations and New Ideas Through Youth Innovation Forum in October

Beijing, 1 September 2015 – Through a Youth Innovation Forum on 17–18 October, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Tsinghua University are bringing together global innovators to ignite conversations and discuss new ways of addressing the rights and needs of children, facilitating South–South collaboration and ultimately achieving results for the most disadvantaged children and women in a variety of contexts. 

The forum, at the Tsinghua University campus in Beijing, will bring together more than 200 young people, designers, technologists, social entrepreneurs, academics, policy-makers and industry leaders from China and the global South to highlight their stories of innovation and entrepreneurship, the application of technological advancements in international development work and the role of China in the post-2015 sustainable development agenda.

Through the forum, UNICEF and Tsinghua University aim to generate networks and continued collaboration around areas that have important implications for the rights of disadvantaged children and their families. 

"This forum can serve as a platform for young people to interact with experts and creative thinkers, to push the boundaries of the possible and create a future they want in the global South, driving change for the most marginalized children and women," said Rana Flowers, UNICEF Representative to China. 

The Youth Innovation Forum is part of a UNICEF–Tsinghua partnership established to leverage new ideas, research and approaches to improving the development outcomes for children and contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals for the next 15 years. 

The partnership was deepened during a visit by Dr Chen Xu, Tsinghua University's Chairperson of University Council, to UN Headquarters, where she met UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, Yoka Brandt, Director of Communications, Paloma Escudero and Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, President of the Bureau of Executive Board of UNICEF and Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations. 

Highlighting the significance of the partnership, Dr Chen Xu said that Tsinghua's mission to promote social development is aligned with UNICEF's global mandate to safeguard children's wellbeing. Through strengthening the partnership and leveraging respective expertise, she hopes that UNICEF and Tsinghua will jointly create open source global public goods, and cultivate a generation of young innovators with global vision and dedication to social service.

“In a world where growing disparities, climate change and urbanization, among other challenges, are taking tolls on children, innovation is vital to identify solutions and achieve equity. The partnership with Tsinghua University has the potential to improve the lives of the most marginalized children, not only in China but also in the other parts of the world," said Ms Flowers. 

Under the partnership, a UNICEF–Tsinghua Innovation Centre will be established as a platform for young people, industry leaders, social entrepreneurs and development experts to jointly create global public goods and open-source products that benefit the world's most vulnerable women and children. 

About UNICEF Innovation

UNICEF Innovation is an interdisciplinary team of individuals around the world tasked with identifying, prototyping, and scaling technologies and practices that strengthen UNICEF's work. The global team consists of the following components:

• An Innovation Unit in New York Headquarters and San Francisco with the focus of facilitating innovation across UNICEF
• A Global Innovation Center (GIC) based in Nairobi supports and incubates innovations generated by external partners and through South-South collaboration and focuses on taking proven, existing innovative solutions from across UNICEF and partners to global scale
• A Supply Division Innovation Unit in Copenhagen that focuses on the development of key products for children as aligned to the needs of programmes
• A network of Innovation Labs around the world The current areas of work include real-time information, access to information and infrastructure, and youth engagement. 

About Tsinghua University

Advancing a tradition of academic excellence, Tsinghua University is a pacesetter for innovation in China. It has become a leading world university in just over 100 years.

Tsinghua University excels in its fundamental task of high-level personnel training, and also serves as an indispensable base for China's scientific and technological innovation. It is among the most selective universities in the Asia-Pacific region, and a trusted global partner for researchers and academics.