In an interactive map which is updated almost daily, Unicef realize how to leverage mobile technology and the use of information in real time to improve the lives of children worldwide. To date 270 projects are developed and many more are being piloted or even taking shape in the minds of its creators. There is almost always an implied very basic mobile phone and slower than in developed countries tolerate data traffic, but these tools, used high doses of creativity, are sufficient to solve problems of health, education, infrastructure, logistics or education.
The key is to facilitate information access to vulnerable populations that way can make the best decisions on key issues for their survival.
Some examples:
Uganda- UReport is a system of information exchange in real time via SMS which aims to improve communication between community leaders and younger members. The goal is to engage and involve youth for positive changes in the community setting. The network, created in May 2011 has grown rapidly and now has 250,000 active members.
Kosovo
- The world looks different and much clearer when you have drawn on a map. That is why the mapping technique is used for those parts of reality that have been hidden or difficult to understand visible and understandable. In Kosovo has managed to trace the routes of public buses in Pristina with open source technology that collects data from the GPS 16 bus lines. The project, which began in January 2012, is the first experiment to digitize public transport in all municipalities of Kosovo.
Zambia
- The ability of youth and adolescents have been developed to seek and find all sorts of tips, advice and tutorials on the Internet has been used to create a counseling service for HIV and other STDs that is active 24 hours every day the year. The service works through the application UReport , created in the Innovation of Unicef, and recommendations are sent by SMS to reach all young people without data rate on your phone or money to connect to the Internet at a cyber cafe .
South Sudan, Uganda and the Philippines
- With the system RapidFTR ( Family Tracing and Reunification Rapid ) has facilitated the work of humanitarian organizations in disaster sites, as this app helps find quickly to children who have been separated from their families. The open source mobile application logs key information about the identity of children, including a photo. Data is shared in a central database which is accessible to all families with missing children. Before RapidFTR this information was obtained by filling several paper questionnaires consuming twice as long and halved the odds of finding the missing. This application was used first in the refugee camps in Uganda, then the displacement crisis of 2013 in Southern Sudan and the Philippines after Typhoon Yolanda.
Uganda
- Unicef has gotten into a portable suitcase a multimedia computer whose battery is solar powered. It's called MobiStation and travels schools, health centers and communities to deliver quality information in different formats. Within this luggage traveling tablets a laptop, a projector, a camera, a microphone and other accessories that support to education in countries where rural schools suffer from lack of textbooks and high rates of absenteeism teachers, and where to find a plug to charge a battery or an Internet connection is almost a miracle.
Zambia
- Until recently needed 66 days to send a document from northeastern Zambia's capital, Lusaka. The Mwana Project , which uses the app RapidSMS has reduced the time to zero by sending and receiving data via SMS. These data were sometimes a matter of life and death, especially if it was the result of an HIV test to be sent from one laboratory to a rural community. Thanks to Project Mwana has increased the number of mothers receiving the diagnosis of their children in near real time. It has also increased the number of births in the country and the health monitoring of babies. This tool will be applied to the entire health system in Zambia.
Burundi
- Only 3% of the Burundian population has access to electricity, which is concentrated in urban areas, and most use as primary sources of hazardous energy options such as coal, wood or kerosene. The Lumiere Project functions as a laboratory for experimenting with fonts faster and safer energy that can be installed in remote areas of the country. One is a generator pedal able to charge five LED bulbs in twenty minutes. Other projects are portable lights LED Nuru .
Lebanon
- The research unit of Unicef seeks innovative for Lebanon displaced children remain in school methods. The project pi4 Learning Program designed for very basic computers but also to be used without Internet in an optimized version, can deliver content to students in primary and secondary schools who have had to interrupt their education to go to refugee camps.
Brazil
- Unicef Brazil has partnered with a local company on a video game project designed by students of the University of Sao Paulo that combines football, digital technology and innovation. Its purpose is to teach literacy to children in the poorest regions of the country. The candidate profile with this tool to educate child is a boy of six to eight years living in the northeastern regions of Brazil, where there are few educational resources.
