UNICEF – Tsinghua Youth Innovation Forum

UNICEF and Tsinghua University are co-hosting the inaugural Youth Innovation Forum on 17-18 October 2015 in Beijing, China. [Download Agenda]

The forum is an open and collaborative space for engaging young people and fostering south-south collaboration for innovative, sustainable and child-focused development.  It will bring together around 200 young students, designers, technologists and social entrepreneurs from China and the global south to engage in ignite talks, interactive discussions and collaborative activities with peers, policy-makers, practitioners and industry leaders. 

The forum will stimulate forward-looking conversations and build networks around areas that have important implications for the future of UNICEF's global mission to support the rights of disadvantaged children and their families.  These include: learning and information access, real-time data, health, and mobile financial services for social good, to name a few. 

The objectives of the forum are to:

• Showcase innovations, and highlight innovators, practitioners and pioneers who are generating impact for children around the world
• Facilitate inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural exchanges among participants and partners to accelerate the creation, adoption and scale-up of innovations for children
• Create a community around innovations in access to information and infrastructure, youth engagement, and real-time information; the network can be later called upon for idea-generation, testing, and development of solutions that can benefit children and women in developing countries and the most resource-scarce environments
• Create a space for policy dialogue around China's innovation and technology advancements as a global innovation in development driver, particularly in Africa
• Raise awareness among the private sector, academia and general public around pressing challenges children and women are facing around the world, and UNICEF is facing on the ground in addressing these issues

The forum is structured around:

• “Young Innovators to Watch” profiling students and young people doing new things or doing things differently that are generating or have the potential to generate positive social impact
• Interactive panels with young people, policy makers, industry experts and practitioners, all engaging in ignite style short presentations, discussions, and Q&A
• “Design for UNICEF workshop” providing knowledge and first-hand experience in human centered design, the application of information technology in development to young people, practitioners and policy makers
• Showcase of products and services with potential to improve the lives of women and children globally

The following themes will be explored:

• “Our stories” – innovation stories from around the world
• China and the “post 2015” sustainable development agenda in a child rights perspective
• “Internet plus development” – the innovative application of technology in tackling development challenges

Organizers

About Tsinghua University

Originally established in 1911, Tsinghua is a leading educational and research institution.  The University currently has 19 schools, 55 departments, about 6,000 full-time faculty members and more than 45,000 students.  Among its faculty are 43 members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and 33 members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.  In both domestic and international university rankings, Tsinghua University has consistently been ranked alongside Peking University as the top institution of higher learning in Mainland China.

Tsinghua alumni include President Xi Jinping, who graduated with a degree in chemical engineering in 1979, as well as former President Hu Jintao, who graduated with a degree in hydraulic engineering in 1964.

Located on the former site of Qing Dynasty royal gardens, Tsinghua's campus was named one of the most beautiful college campuses in the world by a panel of architects and campus designers at Forbes.

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 internally across UNICEF;
• A Global Innovation Center (GIC) based out of 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.