)
)
We are back!
To kick off Season 7, Thomas Davin, Global Innovation Director at UNICEF, joins us to discuss his extraordinary experience with innovation in the humanitarian sector, accelerating the pace of progress against critical issues affecting children all over the world!
As Thomas says, in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for the children of the world, we need to multiply the pace of process by 400%, compared to what we have seen in the last 15 years.
We need all the help we can get! So can technology be the solution?
We delve into what UNICEF’s Innovation team do to create, test, and implement innovations, the unique initiatives they use, the role that technology plays, and the current technology trends Thomas sees in the humanitarian sector.
It’s an episode packed full of knowledge, experience, and passion, so listen now and help us Ignite Change!
Tune in!
Thomas’ journey
For 25 years, Thomas has worked at UNICEF across various different roles. During this time he has been challenged, has grown personally and professionally, and has been rewarded by seeing the positive impact of his work.
He has an extraordinary experience in the humanitarian sector, witnessing the horrifying and the hopeful. In his role, Thomas loves the opportunity of meeting with incredible people who are passionate and care about creating change.
"A journey of hope, in general, a journey where I’ve seen just so many beautiful stories of surviving and stories of blossoming."
Thomas Davin, Global Innovation Director, UNICEF
Insights from a career in the humanitarian sector
It’s not your usual 9 to 5. It’s far from it.
Thomas’ passion for what he does is evident in every word of this episode. He talks about how working in this sector often means that you can see the impact of your work with your own eyes. Which is a huge encouragement!
However, there is also another side - the repeat crises you also see. For example, Palestine, Sudan, and Yemen, are all countries that have gone through crisis after crisis. These situations are incredibly difficult for the people living them. But Thomas also describes the inspiring resilience and the hope that these people have.
"This is passion work, this is not about getting bread on the table, it’s about what really nourishes you, your passion, what you want to give back to the world."
Thomas Davin, Global Innovation Director, UNICEF
We’ve heard incredible stories from various people in this sector across the seasons of Igniting Change. The energy and passion you see from the people working in this sector is incredible!
Imagine how excited and flattered we were to hear Thomas say he’s tuned into a few Igniting Change episodes too and that the podcast brings like-minded people together (yay us!).
How UNICEF’s Innovation Team is driving change for children
As Global Innovation Director, Thomas leads the amazing Innovation team.
They work across all sectors to accelerate the impact that UNICEF has on the world. Due to the nature of this work, Thomas and his team focus on collaborating with children and young people to break the cycles for future generations. Encouraging them to drive change.
From technological innovations in blockchain, data science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and data satellite imagery, to behaviour change through innovative finance and policy changes, it seems like there’s nothing the team can’t do!
It’s an exciting time, but it’s also daunting. Especially in terms of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
"On average, we need to multiply the pace of progress that we have seen in the last 15 years, four fold."
Thomas Davin, Global Innovation Director, UNICEF
That quote demonstrates the huge amount of work that remains. It means we need to be 400% faster if we want to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for children in the world.
On the brighter side, it means that there is no such thing as a bad idea! Thomas and the Innovation team are here to explore and test all the different ideas and opportunities that will help make the SDGs a reality.
"The status quo is just unacceptable. So it means we have carte blanche to go and be crazy, and be bold, and be ambitious, and try new things."
Thomas Davin, Global Innovation Director, UNICEF
What is Innovation30?
Innovation30 is UNICEF’s initiative that supports transformative climate solutions for children and their communities.
It came from working with young people in Africa and Latin America, where there were two eureka moments that led to the creation of this initiative:
Young people are tired of the world telling them their life is going to be hard, living the consequences that earlier generations haven’t been able to resolve. They want to be and be seen as agents of change, not victims.
The adult world is not ready to listen to young people’s ideas or give them the resources to put their ideas into action and make a change in the world.
Innovation30 focuses on entrepreneurs under 30 years old who have established a company, with brilliant ideas connected to climate adaptation or mitigation that could be very important for young people and children in the future.
UNICEF offers their platform and connections to give these entrepreneurs the ability to connect with funders, impact investors, and more people who care about our climate. All this means that entrepreneurs are recognised and supported to work on their ideas.
We haven’t focused on them because they are young, we’ve focused on them because they are the best of the best even if they are young.
Thomas Davin, Global Innovation Director, UNICEF
Although there are no bad ideas, there still needs to be a process for deciding which innovations are pursued. Therefore, each idea needs to be proven from a scientific perspective to show it has the potential to be effective.
Innovation30 is only in its second year! It’s very exciting and there’s hope to see these initiatives blossom very soon.
How UNICEF Approaches Innovation: The Process Behind the Change
Innovative ideas can come from different sources of inspiration, and the main way Thomas and his team do this is by identifying key issues.
There are 155 UNICEF country offices across the world, all of which are very decentralised so they can support the government in giving the best to the children in each territory. This means each country office can understand local contexts, build great partnerships, and use solutions that work for each country.
But surely, because each office works with children, there should be some common problems? Exactly!
Thomas and his team worked with various country offices to help the wider UNICEF organisation resolve key common problems. Accelerating the positive impact even further!
Now there’s a tool box for key problems such as learning poverty. WIth the growing number of 225 million children out of school, and 70% of children who are 10 years old and in school not being able to explain what a piece of text means, this is a pressing issue we need to resolve.
Solutions are thought of and tested through the following:
What do we know of impactful initiatives we feel excited by?
It works in one country, can we test it in another country and determine if it works across different contexts?
Gradually increasing this to eight to ten countries.
The innovation is transformational and powerful!
Now UNICEF will take it to scale.
Thomas and his team can focus on another innovation!
For each innovation, this process takes about 4-5 years. This is because of many factors such as: finding resources, finding champions for the new innovation, laws of innovation, and convincing partner organisations the innovation is impactful.
Change takes time, but technology has helped speed the process up!
How Technology is Transforming Humanitarian Efforts
Thomas and the Innovation team look at technology as a major accelerator of results and impact for children across most sectors that they work in.
Artificial Intelligence
One technology that is at the top of everyone’s mind is artificial intelligence (AI). Thomas has discussed how he thinks Generative (Gen) AI is going to be a revolution in education, health, social protection, communication and so much more.
But it is also so important to have a suitable ecosystem to support these AI innovations. This includes making sure people can use it properly, introducing new roles if needed, and that there is other technology that can support the use of AI such as compatible computers.
UNICEF’s Innovation team is testing a few AI related innovations as we speak, so watch this space!
Education Technology
EdTech is an area that Thomas is particularly passionate about.
Although there is a safety element for the use of technology for education, successful results are showing that innovations can be impactful if these safety concerns are addressed and challenges are overcome.
An example Thomas discussed is a Finnish social enterprise that uses AI in mathematics. The social enterprise has worked on it for 20 years an is a small scale solution for use in schools. In three months the schools that were using the solution were outperforming the schools that weren't by 40%!
But Thomas also emphasises that Teachers need to be the beneficiaries for Gen AI in Education. They can use Gen AI tools to automate lesson plans or other administrative tasks, freeing their time to think of their student’s more specific needs.
Bridging the Digital Divide
The digital divide is an ethical dilemma that needs to be addressed in order for technology to be successfully implemented. If we can use technology to help the children of the world, why wouldn't we?
It is difficult to find the money and funding to solve the digital divide. However, Thomas thinks that countries that have an appetite for embracing new ways of doing things will help them ‘catch up’ and overcome the digital divide.
Humanitarian Technology Trends Shaping the Future
There is a common theme in the humanitarian sector, technology is increasing the pace of development. Drawing from his experience and knowledge of the industry, Thomas talks us through the following technology trends:
Use of satellite imagery: One example is using satellite imagery to automate the recognition of school infrastructure to help map the locations of a countries’ schools. Enabling them to see which schools are connected and the quality of that connection in real-time.
Use of Large Language Models (LLMs): The team is testing this right now in the Congo! Giving people access to information about where crises are coming from, what's the right thing to do, what do they need, in their local dialect.
Chatbots and mobile access: Helping people to upskill and reskill with access to information they didn’t have before.
Assisted Digital Textbooks: Digitalising textbooks to make them more accessible for children with visual or hearing impairments in ways they couldn’t before.
Join the conversation
Tune in to the full conversation on your favourite podcast streaming platform and via Youtube!
For more things Igniting Change, check out our podcast page, or shout us a holla to get in touch with us. We would love to hear from you 💚
Published on 27 February 2025, last updated on 27 February 2025
)
)
)