Partner Innovation Amplified UNICEF's Impact for Children in 2023

At a time when multiple, overlapping world crises demand attention equally, UNICEF is deeply grateful to work with partners that share an enduring commitment to investing and innovating for a better future for children. UNICEF USA partners with purpose-driven companies, foundations and philanthropists who contribute immense resources to serving the world’s most vulnerable children. In life-threatening conflicts and disasters, these partners enable UNICEF to respond rapidly and effectively. Over the longer term, their contributions help address systemic inequities, stimulate national investment and capacity building, implement and scale up data-driven solutions and leverage digital and technological advances so that every child can grow up healthy, educated, protected and respected.  

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals requires private sector participation

Only seven years remain to achieve the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the 17-point plan to secure the rights of all people and rescue the planet. Should the international community fall short of the plan’s goals, the world’s 2 billion children could be robbed of their fundamental right to survive and thrive on a healthy planet. Unfortunately, the global polycrisis — the multiple compounding catastrophes, including climate change, violent conflicts, COVID-19 and economic crises — has led to alarming underinvestment in the lives and futures of children. To accelerate progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), governments, civil society and corporations must cooperate to design, scale and deliver innovative solutions.

Many UNICEF partnerships tackle multiple SDGs, which interconnect by design. Each goal applies to children’s ability to fulfill their potential to some degree, though SDG 3, to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, applies to a particularly vast swath of UNICEF’s programs.  

UNICEF helps strengthen and integrate community and primary health systems and services

Community health workers (CHWs), primarily women and often trained volunteers, are crucial to bridging gaps between regional and national health systems. As trusted members of their communities, CHWs provide basic and essential services and help families make informed health care decisions. Yet, many CHW programs remain underfunded, leaving workers with inadequate training and resources to carry out their responsibilities.  

For over 35 years, Johnson & Johnson and UNICEF have collaborated in over 30 countries and territories to empower health workers and strengthen health systems by supporting training, educational opportunities and skill-building programs. The work has minimized communication deficits through improved access to digital tools that deliver health information directly to frontline health workers’ phones.  

With funding from the Johnson & Johnson Foundation, UNICEF is helping CHWs receive quality skill-based training in Lebanon and has worked with government and local partners in Uganda to develop and deploy the FamilyConnect app. To date, FamilyConnect has helped over 76,000 pregnant women, new mothers and heads of households receive vital health information.  

Equitable access to information, data and technology underpins UNICEF’s health systems strengthening (HSS) efforts. In 2020, UNICEF received $30,000 in cloud credits from Google.org, which UNICEF used to develop representative, unbiased data for programs like school mapping and vaccinations. The data also helped shape UNICEF Innovation’s Magic Box, which leverages AI and data to address issues like epidemic response (including COVID-19), infrastructure mapping and demographic mapping for vulnerable populations.  

Early childhood development requires nurturing both mother and child  

Quality maternal and neonatal health care offers a child the best start. For over two decades, Kimberly-Clark has helped UNICEF maintain and scale critical programs that have strengthened neonatal health systems in rural communities across China and Vietnam, to support over 15 million babies and their families. The partnership has also helped UNICEF reach over 1.4 million children and 1.1 million parents across Latin America and the Caribbean with quality early childhood development (ECD) interventions. 

More than 600 million people worldwide will face hunger in 2030 unless progress toward SDG 2’s goal of zero hunger accelerates. 149 million children suffer from malnutrition in early childhood; globally, this affects 22 percent of children under 5. A contribution from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints supports UNICEF’s No Time to Waste approach to prevent, detect and treat child severe acute malnutrition, or wasting.  

Adolescents deserve every opportunity for a healthy childhood and an equitable world 

Adolescence (ages 10-19) marks a new threshold of interaction with society. Ninety percent of the world’s 1.2 billion adolescents live in low- and middle-income countries. 125 million of that cohort live in areas affected by armed conflict. Poverty, gender inequality and other forms of discrimination are exacerbated by climate change, conflict and humanitarian crises — all of which imperil adolescents’ well-being. 

UNICEF supports programs that promote gender equality, reduce stigma and discrimination and provide adolescents with information to make decisions that affect their sexual, reproductive and mental health. Achieving gender parity and empowering women and girls, the focus of SDG 5, requires big ideas to dismantle systemic barriers. Girls entering puberty and menstruation without proper support often experience stigma and social exclusion and miss out on educational, social and economic opportunities. Kimberly-Clark is helping UNICEF to create awareness on safe menstrual health and hygiene (MHH), empowering girls to remain in school and adopt healthy and hygienic behaviors. This partnership focuses on gender-responsive and disability-inclusive water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) program implementation, and promotes advocacy messages to break the stigma around menstruation.  

For decades, Zonta International’s work with UNICEF has saved and improved thousands of lives by supporting adolescents with the services, information and safe, inclusive environments needed to reach their full potential. In Madagascar, Zonta supports programming to ensure that children, particularly girls, learn in a safe and inclusive environment and are empowered to help build climate-resilient communities. Students and teachers receive training on water conservation, environmental education and MHH. 

In Peru, 157,000 students have benefited from the Zonta-supported violence prevention strategy (PREVI) in schools; the partnership has also given 49 health centers tools to collaborate with schools to protect students’ mental health. 

Climate change threatens the fundamental right to safe water, sanitation and hygiene 

The worsening climate crisis requires extraordinary and urgent action, as laid out in SDG 13. This includes developing resilient and adaptive solutions to climate-related hazards and natural disasters.  SDG 6 calls for universal, sustainable and equitable access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene. In 2022, 2.2 billion people did not have safely managed drinking water, and 2.2 billion lacked handwashing facilities. Since 2020, Baxter International Foundation has been helping accelerate progress toward SDG 6 by funding WASH program in La Guajira, Colombia. The partnership ensures thousands of children, adolescents, families and communities — including refugee and migrant communities — have access to safe and sustainable water sources in one of the country’s most water-challenged regions.  

Baxter and UNICEF are rehabilitating water systems, promoting basic sanitation using community-based solutions, installing solar panels, monitoring water quality, and distributing water filters and hygiene kits to families. Recent weather-related emergencies in Colombia have increased the demand for water filters and hygiene kits, highlighting the demand for long-term, sustainable solutions. Baxter, whose contribution also supports SDG 9, which pertains to infrastructure and innovation, extended its support to UNICEF for a climate-resilient WASH program in Egypt.  

With support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF identified innovative and sustainable interventions to treat and dispose of wastewater and fecal sludge and to improve the sanitation infrastructure for Syrian refugees in Lebanese host communities. The Foundation also supports a UNICEF pilot to remove pathogens from anaerobic sludge and test the viability of a new market for locally produced compost and co-compost. These collaborations highlight the importance of scaling innovative solutions to meet WASH needs. The worsening climate crisis requires extraordinary and urgent action, as laid out in SDG 13. UNICEF works with governments to put children at the center of their climate change strategies and response plans; nearly 90 percent of the disease burden attributable to climate change globally is borne by children under 5. This includes developing resilient and adaptive solutions to climate-related hazards and natural disasters.  

Climate-resilient WASH interventions and infrastructure use different methods to establish safe, adaptable water supply and sanitation services for communities affected by climate change. In India, the fifth most vulnerable country to climate change, Xylem Inc., through its support of UNICEF’s WASH work, has directly helped at least 1.24 million children receive better access and education on WASH in schools and preschools. An impressive 860,000 schools, 889,000 preschools and 35,000 public institutions have gained access to tap water connections. Further, Xylem-supported campaigns have helped sensitize millions of people on menstrual health and hygiene, including reaching 12 million people on Global Menstrual Hygiene Day. 

UNICEF works with governments to put children at the center of their climate change and sustainability strategies and response plans; over 1 million deaths in children under the age of 5 are attributable to unhealthy environments. With support from the Clarios Foundation, UNICEF’s Healthy Environments for Healthy Children (HEHC) program is working to protect children from the impact of pollution and climate change in 14 countries. HEHC calls for mobilizing collective action among all government and community sectors, including empowering children and young people as agents of change. So far, 1.7 million caregivers have been reached (with awareness programs on environmental threats affecting children and how to protect them), 751 youth activists and 5 youth groups are engaged (in advocating for action at national and local levels to address climate change and environmental degradation) and hundreds of health workers are being trained on children’s environmental health issues (and how to prevent, detect and manage lead poisoning).

Disease prevention, treatment and eradication remain a priority 

Rotary International and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have been crucial, longstanding partners to UNICEF in the fight to eradicate polio globally. Together, they have provided billions of dollars in financial contributions and mobilized support from governments, organizations and civil society for the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), which has contributed to the vaccination of more than 3 billion children against polio and to strengthening health systems’ response to current and emerging health threats. GPEI is one of the world’s largest public–private partnerships led by national governments with six partners (the remaining three are the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance). Since GPEI’s 1988 founding, the global incidence of polio has decreased by 99.9 percent.  

In 2016, Google.org announced a $1 million donation to UNICEF and raised additional funds through employee giving campaigns to fight the spread of the Zika virus. Google technical volunteers worked with UNICEF to build a platform to map and anticipate virus outbreaks and to develop technology applicable to Zika that could be adapted for other health emergencies. 

UNICEF is elevating pediatric non-communicable diseases on the global health agenda 

UNICEF has recently prioritized non-communicable disease (NCD) detection, prevention and treatment to strengthen health systems. NCDs in children and adolescents include type 1 diabetes, cancer, congenital and rheumatic heart disease, sickle cell disease and asthma. Although many NCDs are preventable and treatable, such diseases kill nearly 1 million people under 20 worldwide each year. Behaviors like tobacco use, physical inactivity, poor diet and excessive alcohol consumption can increase the risk of dying from some NCDs.  

In December 2021, UNICEF received its first grant from foundation partner Helmsley Charitable Trust to drive greater inclusion, prioritization and resource mobilization to NCD programs globally. The project also follows the PEN-Plus model of progressive decentralization to incrementally build staffing, training, interventions and supplies needed at first-level district hospitals to address severe, chronic NCDs in Malawi and Mozambique.  

Another strategic and innovative collaboration working to change the landscape of childhood NCDs is with Eli Lilly and Company. A special event at the 2023 UN General Assembly focused on accelerating greater multisectoral action on childhood NCDs and advocating for further investment in health systems strengthening. In 2022, Lilly and UNICEF joined forces to improve health outcomes for 10 million children and adolescents with NCDs in Bangladesh, Malawi, Nepal, the Philippines and Zimbabwe. Lilly committed $14.4 million to support UNICEF’s efforts to address NCD risk factors, strengthen country-level health systems and enhance the ability of health workers to provide care and support.  

Quality education breaks down barriers to future employment and earning potential 

SDG 4, which prioritizes quality education, recognizes that laying the foundation for future learning, good health and earning potential begins in the first years of a child’s life. “Measures such as making education free and compulsory, increasing the number of teachers, improving basic school infrastructure and embracing digital transformation are essential” to achieve SDG 4’s 2030 benchmarks, per a 2023 Special Report on SDG progress. 

UNICEF and Microsoft have helped millions of children and young people learn and develop critical skills through UNICEF’s flagship programs, the Learning Passport and the Passport to Earning. The Learning Passport, a flexible digital platform and remote-learning solution, has reached more than 6 million children in 36 countries, including learners with limited or no access to the internet. In offering a digital learning experience without the internet, the Learning Passport represents an innovative approach to bridging the digital divide, which precludes half of the world’s population from benefiting from digital advances due to a lack of internet connectivity. The Passport to Earning equips young people with free, job-relevant skills that position them to access economic opportunities and has skilled and certified more than a million young people in India to date in areas of financial literacy and digital productivity. 

Fundamentally, achieving universal internet access for all begins by locating the gaps in connectivity. Dell Technologies contributes valuable technical assistance to accelerate Giga's mission to connect every school to the internet. Data scientists with Giga, a joint UNICEF-ITU (International Telecommunication Union) initiative, use machine-learning algorithms and high-resolution satellite imagery to map the exact locations of schools. The application of Dell's high-performance computing (HPC) technology has substantially reduced the time needed to download, process and apply these models to satellite imagery. In Sudan, for example, the processing time decreased from one year to six weeks, with the team identifying over 13,000 previously unmapped schools. With an accurate map of school locations, Giga is able to add critical data such as real-time connectivity status and infrastructure, helping Governments implement connectivity solutions that hasten digital inclusion efforts for schoolchildren.

UNICEF launched Learning for Life in 2018 with support from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This multi-country program provides ECD and education services to refugees and vulnerable children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda. Over 114,380 children have accessed ECD, education or alternative learning opportunities.  

A trained and educated workforce is vital to sustainable economic growth 

Since 2019, UNICEF and SAP have generated inclusive opportunities for over 7.6 million adolescents through innovative skills development programs aligned with SDG 4’s focus on quality education and SDG 8’s emphasis on decent work for all. Globally, one in four young people were not participating in education, employment or training, and young women were more than twice as likely as young men to be in this situation in 2022. The partnership supports Generation Unlimited (GenU) and contributes to a standardized national curriculum, workforce readiness programs and in-depth research to better inform and connect the private sector with future talent.

The initial partnership launched in 2019 in India, Turkey and Vietnam, while the extended partnership in 2022 focused on impacting youth in Kenya, Nigeria, the Philippines and South Africa through the expansion of YOMA, a digital marketplace for youth to engage in social impact tasks and learning-to-earning opportunities that will transform their futures.  

The collaboration included the launch of the SAP Educate to Employ (E2E) initiative, a 'learn to earn' pathway aimed at equipping underserved youth with essential skills, knowledge, attitudes and values to prepare them for employment opportunities in the vast SAP ecosystem. Since the beginning of 2023, more than 1,000 youths have begun their training. 

These stories represent just some of the game-changing ways that our partners' investments of funding, expertise and time amplify UNICEF's impact for the world's most disadvantaged children. The private sector is critical to fulfilling the SDGs’ promise to radically improve people’s lives and the planet. Halfway to the 2030 deadline, UNICEF continues collaborating with partners to design scalable and sustainable solutions for the low- and middle-income countries that will bear the brunt of failing to meet these goals. The good news is evidence shows that investing in children, particularly in the early years, can be the best way to accelerate progress toward the SDGs. Our partners' commitment enables UNICEF to direct resources toward strengthening national capacity, accountability and policies to create a better world for children. 

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