Thought Leadership
Initiative Background
CauseTech: Succeed Where There’s a Need
Inspirations That Overcome Limitations
The BPI Network & the CMO Council are embarking on a landmark initiative in partnership with UNICEF that seeks to crowdsource breakthrough ideas, inventions, products, and emerging technologies that can advance the work done worldwide by the UNICEF Innovation Center.
Dubbed “Succeed Where There’s a Need,” the CauseTech campaign aims to aggregate the world’s best and brightest youth, innovators, technologists, IT professionals, product developers, researchers, entrepreneurs, academics and post-graduate students in a global open innovation ecosystem. Through collaborative thinking, we seek to adapt and deploy inventive technology solutions that can help UNICEF scale its efforts to meet the ever-growing needs of the poorest and most vulnerable and excluded children across 190 countries.
We invite you to visit the pre-launch website, register and get involved at causetech.net. You can also learn more about UNICEF Innovation Center at http://www.unicef.org/innovation/.
ShareSponsors
UNICEF Innovation Center is an interdisciplinary team of individuals around the world tasked with identifying, prototyping, and scaling technologies and practices that strengthen UNICEF’s work. The teams build and scale innovations that improve children’s lives around the world. To do this, they have established 15 innovation labs around the world. Those teams work across three main areas. First, providing support to hundreds of global UNICEF innovation projects that may need new partners, technologies, or connections. Second, in the development of and experimentation with new operational models, such as the UNICEF Fellows program. And third, looking at the 3-5 year future horizon for UNICEF – things that are coming but not yet ready: 3D printing, the future of transportation and identity, digital currency, and other future possibilities.
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Ventureburn is focused on telling the world’s startup news and tech entrepreneurs’ stories from the emerging market sector, covering everything from innovative new businesses and developments in ecommerce to helpful tips for starter entrepreneurs. Ventureburn is a part of Burn Media, a multimedia digital publishing house which focuses on the intersection of technology and media, entrepreneurship, cars and gadgets.
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NetLine Corp. is the world leader in business content syndication aimed at driving buyer engagement, customer lead acquisition and sales pipeline performance. Its Precision Targeting Engine™ and global multi-channel network of more than 15,000 website properties enable BtoB marketers to reach a diverse audience of more than 125+ million business professionals across 300+ industry sectors. NetLine’s multi-channel content delivery model allows for brand customization, content adaptation and flexible market access through publisher websites, expert blogs, email, search engines, social media networks, e-newsletters and mobile. Founded in 1994, NetLine is privately held and headquartered in LosGatos, California, with operations across the globe.
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Partners
Fast Company is a leading progressive business media brand, with a unique editorial focus on innovation in technology, ethonomics (ethical economics), leadership, and design. Written for, by, and about the most progressive business leaders, Fast Company and FastCompany.com inspire readers and users to think beyond traditional boundaries, lead conversations, and create the future of business. Launched in November 1995 by Alan Webber and Bill Taylor, two former Harvard Business Review editors, Fast Company magazine was founded on a single premise: A global revolution was changing business, and business was changing the world.
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Produced by IDG the DEMO conferences in the United States, China, Brazil, Russia and Vietnam focus on emerging technologies and new product innovations. The DEMO conferences have earned their reputation for consistently identifying tomorrow’s cutting-edge technologies, and have served as launchpad events for companies such as Palm, E*Trade, Salesforce, Webex, Tivo, VMware, Fusion-io and thousands of others, helping them to secure venture funding, establish critical business relationships, and influence early adopters. The DEMO Scholarship Partner Program, subsidized by corporate sponsorships, offers multiple scholarship opportunities to ensure that deserving entrepreneurs have the chance to introduce cutting edge technology products at DEMO that might have otherwise gone undiscovered.
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Facts & Stats
An estimated 1.3 million adolescents died in 2012, mostly from preventable or treatable causes. (Source)
Complications linked to pregnancy and childbirth are the second cause of death for 15-19-year-old girls globally. (Source)
Lack of access to clean water claims 500,000 lives annually in children under the age of 5. That equates to one child death approximately every minute. (Source)
842,000 people die every year from diarrheal disease caused by unsafe drinking water and lack of appropriate sanitation; that equates to 2,300 people daily (Source)
The return on investment in water is incredibly high. According to U.N. Water, every $1 invested in water and sanitation produces a whopping ROI between $5 and $28. (Source)
Approximately $24 billion worth of economic value is lost each year due to the time individuals spend collecting water rather than working or going to school, an activity that consumes, on average, 25 percent of women’s time in developing nations. (Source)
$260 billion is lost each year as a result of limited or no access to clean water supplies and sanitation. (Source)
Universal access to clean water would result in an estimated $32 billion boost in economic benefits annually. (Source)
Annually, 4.3 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s GDP is lost due to the lack of access to clean water and sanitation facilities. (Source)
Each year, over 7.5 million children under the age of five die from malnutrition and other preventable diseases. (Source)
Children in sub-Saharan Africa are more than 15 times more likely to die before the age of five than children in developed regions (Source)
Leading causes of death in under-five children are preterm birth complications, pneumonia, birth asphyxia, diarrhea and malaria. About 45% of all child deaths are linked to malnutrition. (Source)
Nearly 800 women die every single day due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth. (Source)
Some 1.1 billion people in developing countries have inadequate access to water, and 2.6 billion people lack any sanitation whatsoever, with 1.1 billion still practicing open defecation. (Source)
Worldwide, 121 million children do not receive an education. (Source)
Articles
March 27, 2023 – Using Design Thinking for Social Impact and Innovation in Detroit with Michael Brennan
Innovation For Development
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March 6, 2023 – From Energy Poverty to the Imaginative Solution of Solar Stoves with Catlin Power
Innovation For Development
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February 29, 2023 – Companies Are Getting Creative About Clean Energy
GreenBiz
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January 8, 2023 – Impact Entrepreneurship
Huffington Post
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November 3, 2022 – In Bhutan, the Road to Green Development is Paved with Plastic
EcoBusiness
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October 30, 2022 – Can Innovators Build a Future That’s Both Disruptive and Just?
The Conversation US
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July 22, 2023 – How the App Economy Will Drive Innovation in Africa
Ventures Africa
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July 15, 2023 – Challenging The Conventional: Growing Innovation In The Developing World
Global Envision
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July 2, 2023 – Innovation and Enterprise: A Driving Force for Social Impact
Development Marketplace
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July 1, 2023 – Looking for leadership in the Internet of Things? It’s Not Where You Think
Tech Policy Daily
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June 29, 2023 – Investing in Water in Developing Countries: The Right (and Smart) Thing to Do
Triple Pundit
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June 22, 2023 – A Brighter Outlook on Energy Poverty
Global Envision
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June 18, 2023 – Building Your Brand With Crowdfunding
Huffington Post
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June 15, 2023 – SUITS THE C-SUITE
SGV
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May 28, 2023 – Sustainability: From Surviving To Thriving
Forbes
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May 26, 2023 – How to Recognize a Budding Entrepreneur
Wall Street Journal
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May 22, 2023 – Coca-Cola Finds Innovation With Startups
CIO
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November 19, 2022 – UN Reveals Major Gaps in Water and Sanitation- Especially in Rural Area
World Health Organization
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November 13, 2022 – The Future of Business Innovation: Invent the Company That Will Put Your Company Out of Business
Inc.
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November 4, 2022 – How Renewables In Developing Countries Are Leapfrogging Traditional Power
Climate Progress
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October 31, 2022 – Mobile Learning Can Provide Solutions to Top 5 Issues of Education (#mlearning)
Classroom Aid
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October 30, 2022 – Better Water Management Needed to Eradicate Poverty
Inter Press Service
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October 9, 2022 – Widely Used Sanitation Programs Do Not Necessarily Improve Health
Science Daily
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September 24, 2022 – Expert Calls for Moral Crusade to Bring Clean Water and Sanitation to Billions
Guardian News
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August 18, 2023 – Expanding Educational Opportunities for Girls Especially in the Developing World
EdTechReview
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July 18, 2023 – Will the UK Become the World’s Leading Urban Innovation Lab?
Forbes
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July 17, 2023 – Electricity With the Grid
Center for American Progress
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July 13, 2023 – Poor Sanitation in India May Afflict Well-Fed Children with Malnutrition
The New York Times
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May 15, 2023 – Closing the Gap: Gender Disparity and Education in the Developing World
United Nations Association of the National Capital Area
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May 8, 2023 – WHO/UNICEF Highlight Need to Further Reduce Gaps in Access to Improved Drinking Water and Sanitation
World Health Organization
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April 30, 2023 – How Can Educational ICT be Relevant to the Poorest of the Poor?
Educational Technology Debate
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April 16, 2023 – 5 Key Barriers to Educational Technology Adoption in the Developing World
Educational Technology Debate
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March 20, 2023 – Eliminating Extreme Inequality: A Sustainable Development Goal, 2015-2030
Ethics & International Affairs
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February 3, 2023 – Equity and Social Cohesion: the Contribution of Education to Peacebuilding in the Post 2015 Development Goals
BAICE
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White Papers
UN Water: Investing in Water and Sanitation: Increasing Access, Reducing Inequalities
WHO
Access to safe drinking-water and basic sanitation is essential to human health and survival. But for many people living in low-resource settings, these vital services remain out of reach. Read more »
Reading in the Mobile Era
UNESCO
For centuries, limited access to text has been a barrier to literacy. Reading requires books. Without them literacy remains out of reach. Today, however, this barrier is receding thanks to the spread of inexpensive mobile technology. Basic mobile phones offer a new, affordable and easy-to use portal to reading material. Read more »
Sustainable Development Begins With Education
UNESCO
In the coming months the international community will create a space to re-consider its commitments and obligations to the young and the marginalized in the world, whose voices are often muted. Working together it is imperative that all interested stakeholders recommit themselves to unlocking the transformative power of education. Read more »
