UNICEF’s Middle East and North Africa Regional Office (MENARO) coordinates and supervises work in 16 countries and territories and includes situations of ongoing conflict and protracted crisis.

Despite the challenges, UNICEF is implementing groundbreaking innovations in areas such as youth training, emergency response, gender equality, education, health and climate change.

Here are five promising solutions:

Climate Change

1. Climate Polices for Children Dashboard | SDG 13 | Egypt, Türkiye

The problem: children and young people often experience the gravest consequences from climate and environmental hazards, shocks and stresses, yet too rarely are their interests at the forefront of climate policy discussions

The solution: UNICEF has analyzed countries’ climate action plans as captured in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement, helping governments understand how child-sensitive their climate policies are, identify gaps and provide evidence for future decision making

The impact: creating inclusive, child-sensitive national climate policies have the potential to lower child vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, and to empower children to be more aware and better informed, increasing their resilience

Humanitarian

2. Project Alpha | SDG 7 | Lebanon, Yemen

The problem: children and communities in fragile and conflict-affected countries lack reliable access to clean, affordable and reliable energy

The solution: using digital mapping tools, innovative financing mechanisms and green skills building to provide solar photovoltaic panels at schools, health centres and water and sanitation facilities, making these into community power hubs

The impact: addressing the need for reliable, sustainable energy among the 186 million children worldwide who attend primary schools without electricity, and the 745 million people who lack access to basic electricity

3. Kits That Fit | SDG 2 & 6 | Egypt, Lebanon, State of Palestine, Sudan

The problem: when crises hit, standardized emergency relief kits do not always contain appropriate, context-specific items that people need

The solution: gathering feedback and offering a curated selection of locally sourced items means people quickly get the things they actually need and want, while humanitarian agencies are held accountable to those they serve

The impact: people in emergencies are empowered to make their own decisions and receive appropriate relief items

Learning

4. GigaMaps | SDG 4 | State of Palestine, Sudan

The problem: one third of humanity lacks internet access and children at schools without connectivity have fewer opportunities to learn and fulfil their potential.

The solution: GigaMaps is a global schools mapping programme plotting each school and its connectivity level on a live, open-access global map. GigaMaps is an essential step towards understanding the scale of the need and identifying gaps

The impact: 2.2 million schools have been mapped worldwide; 454,000 have their connectivity status mapped; and 98,000 supply real time data. The initiative is part of Giga, a joint UNICEF and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) programme aiming to ensure every school is connected to the internet by 2030

Youth Skills

5. UPSHIFT | Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 & 8 | Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia

The problem: education alone is not enough to prepare young people for the future, they also need skills like problem-solving, creativity, collaboration, leadership, communication and more

The solution: UPSHIFT is a social innovation accelerator in the form of a modular curriculum with adaptable trainings that equips young people with the professional, transferrable skills and the confidence to create meaningful change in their communities

The impact: over 5.2 million young people worldwide have graduated from UPSHIFT training in over 56 countries, learning the skills they need to tackle local challenges

The Wider Regional Innovation Ecosystem 

These five promising initiatives are not all. Other innovative solutions being tested in the region, aiming towards a wide range of SDGs, include: delivering risk-informed payments, Learning Pioneers and Voices of Change.

“Being part of a global innovation ecosystem means we are able to adopt and deploy solutions suited to the different contexts that exist in this diverse and challenging region,” says UNICEF Middle East and North Africa Deputy Regional Director Marc Rubin. “These initiatives have a crucial role in accelerating progress for children across a range of areas. I am regularly inspired by the inventive solutions that emerge – they give me hope for the future.”