UNICEF Innocenti

This week UNICEF Innocenti hosted the second Shape the Future: Innocenti Partner Days. We welcomed partners from across the private and public sphere so they could all learn more about what we do and how we do it. Here in Florence, we shared our work looking at global research and evidence, as well as recounting experiences and inspiring stories from the field. We looked to the future with our Youth Foresight Fellows and our foresight work, and helped our partners understand why this work is relevant in the here and now. We firmly believe that deeper reflection on complex emerging issues is no longer a ‘nice to have’... it is now a ‘must have’. Put simply, evidence-driven decision-making is more important than ever. It is true that the world is a difficult place for everyone, but particularly for children and young people. They face great challenges, but we also see many positives in these challenging times. The collective intelligence in the room over the two days just proves that.   With crisis comes opportunity and now is the time to grasp that opportunity to shape a better future for children everywhere. But none of us can do that alone. Instead, we need to harness the power of partnership and collaboration, and recognize, and make the most of, the interconnectedness of our work At UNICEF Innocenti, we are looking forward to future collaborations with our partners and we salute their commitment to supporting every child.

Did you know that UNICEF Innocenti has been working to understand the challenges and opportunities affecting children and young people since 1988? Or that we work within the walls of the Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence, Italy, perhaps the oldest continuously operating children’s care institution in the world? Discover more about our fascinating history: https://lnkd.in/dpBCrkrt

#RightsCon2025     How can we uphold children's rights in the digital age?     Our new working paper explores how the best interests of the child principle can be meaningfully applied in digital governance, highlighting key gaps and actions needed to ensure children’s rights are prioritized online.   You can read the paper here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/eAxf3YwH If you are attending this year’s #RightsCon, please join UNICEF Innocenti's Steven Vosloo, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)'s Sonia Livingstone and NIC.br's Fabio Senne in Taipei, as they unpack the best interests of the child principle and how it can help shape a safer, fairer and more empowering digital world:   📆 Thursday 27 February | 12:45 - 1:45 pm (Taipei)  📍 In-person session | Room 202B

Kaksi vaikuttavaa ja mielenkiintoista päivää takana Unicefin tutkimusyksikön - Unicef Innocentin - seminaarissa tulevaisuuteen keskittyen Firenzessä. Foresight rules! 🔮 Mitkä ovat sellaisia olemassa olevia asioita, vaikkapa lasten koulutuksessa kehitysmaissa, joita parantamalla saadaan aikaan parempia oppimistuloksia ja sitä kautta rakennetaan varmempaa tulevaisuutta lapsille ja koko mantereelle? Siihen pureuduimme, muun muassa. Tutkimus, kokemus, tulevan ennakointi näiden perusteella ja oikeanlaisten asioiden tukeminen. Koulutus on avain moniin haasteisiin, joita meillä ei olisi pakko olla. A big thank you team Unicef Innocenti for your fantastic work and for hosting us! 🩵 Thank you team Nordic+ for partnership! #foreverychild #witheverychild #unicef UNICEF Innocenti UNICEF Finland

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Technology continues to change the world for all of us at a breathtaking pace - and that's no different for our youngest generations. Indeed, you could argue that theirs are the lives that are being transformed the most. That transformation can be positive: digital technology can open doors to learning, community, jobs and services for children often excluded by location, poverty, discrimination or emergency. But it also has its downsides: risks to children’s well-being and their mental and physical health. Here at UNICEF Innocenti, we ask how we can maximize the benefits of digital technology in children’s lives while mitigating the risks of harm. We research the misuse of digital technologies for child sexual exploitation and abuse and we examine the wide gaps between the digital haves and have nots. Visit our site to find out more: https://lnkd.in/dM5fbmW4

The struggle for gender equality is taking place in rich and poor countries alike. That struggle is vital: Equality is an enabler that can help unlock solutions to a myriad of other challenges. But despite considerable advances in our understanding of the interplay of gender dynamics throughout girls and women’s lives, significant gaps remain. These gaps limit the acceleration of global progress towards gender equality. UNICEF Innocenti is contributing to achieving gender equality by building evidence on: ✳️The gendered nature of violence against children and against women ✳️The effects of social protection on gender equality ✳️How gender impacts migration ✳️The role gender plays in child labour ✳️Intersections between gender and climate change Find out more now: https://lnkd.in/dCHBGZQC

In Africa, an estimated four out of five children are unable to read a simple text by the age of 10. In fact, nowhere in the world is the global learning crisis more severe. Ignoring this crisis risks squandering the immense potential of Africa's demographic shift, but there remains a large gap in understanding how to effectively address it. So we drew from data covering over 167,000 schools in 33 African countries, along with insights from thousands of students, teachers, parents and education officials, to identify promising pathways to improve learning outcomes while strengthening equity and resilience in African education systems. If you would like to learn more, dive in now... https://lnkd.in/dsbcEmqR

🌍 Tackling teacher deployment challenges in Zambia: Zambia has made great strides in education, with the 2022 mass recruitment adding 30,496 teachers to the workforce – the largest recruitment drive in the country’s history! However, teacher deployment challenges persist, particularly in rural areas, affecting education equity. 📚 The latest Teachers for All (T4A) study, conducted together with the Ministry of Education, highlights key lessons from the mass teacher recruitment – and what’s needed next: ✳️Decentralized recruitment worked well – It improved transparency and responsiveness. Human Resource Management Committees were key to the process but need more resources to enhance efficiency. ✳️Allocation challenges remain – Systemic issues like mismatched staffing data and informal transfers need attention. Aligning payroll with real-time data, regular audits, and strengthening local recruitment feedback loops can help. ✳️Rural retention struggles – Limited infrastructure, poor living conditions, and urban migration hinder rural retention. Better housing, healthcare, and roads could help, especially for female teachers. ✳️Primary teacher attrition – Secondary teaching is more attractive due to perceived lighter workloads & better career advancement. Harmonizing salary scales and offering better professional development opportunities for primary teachers can improve things. ✳️Supporting for school leaders – Training in teacher allocation & class size management can improve equity. By addressing these challenges and leveraging the successes of the 2022 recruitment, Zambia can move closer to its goal of quality education for all children. Learn more about the Teachers for All Initiative, led by UNICEF Innocenti: https://lnkd.in/dMEYak5X #EducationForAll #TeachersForAll #ZambiaEducation #TeacherRecruitment #TeacherAllocation Misheck Mwanza Luonde Cholwe Michelle Mills

How will the world for children change over the next 25 years? The world is facing a new and intensifying era of crisis for children. Many of these crises – including climate change, conflict and economic instability – are closely interconnected. They reflect a world of rising geopolitical tensions and competition among nations, which are hindering the implementation of solutions. Find out what the coming decades has in store for our youngest generations. https://lnkd.in/dg4ha2xz