[May 19, 2015] |
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UNICEF and ARM Unleash Technology to Transform Children's Lives
UNICEF and ARM (News - Alert) have announced a multi-year partnership to accelerate the
development of new technologies to overcome the barriers that prevent
millions of families from accessing basic health, education and support
services. The partnership's first action is to collaborate with global
product strategy and design firm frog
on a 'Wearables for Good' challenge to generate ideas for new and
innovative devices that tackle maternal and child health needs in
emerging economies.
The partnership will focus on enabling UNICEF to provide faster and more
comprehensive help to children coping with the effects of mass
urbanization and increased social and economic divides. Together, UNICEF
and ARM will use their influence to encourage the tech sector to innovate
for impact.
Initial deliverables in the multi-year partnership include:
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UNICEF and ARM have partnered with frog to launch the 'Wearables
for Good' design challenge. The challenge asks: Could wearable and
sensor technology be the next mobile revolution? Running over six
months, the challenge invites developers, designers, community
partners and problem-solvers to design a wearable device that offers a
cost-effective, efficient, and sustainable solution to pressing
maternal, newborn or child health problems.
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ARM will work alongside UNICEF's network of Innovation
Labs and country offices to identify and scale up pilot projects
that demonstrate the potential to be used at a national level. Over
the next year, UNICEF and ARM will uncover the most impactful
solutions being used or in trials across the UNICEF network and invest
to deliver them wherever they are needed.
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Longer term, the UNICEF/ARM partnership will conduct research to
evaluate and promote market opportunities in developing countries.
With the findings, UNICEF and ARM will outline the business case for
investing in solutions for mobile financial services, identity,
transportation, learning and wearable/sensor technology. The joint
goal is to build momentum for globally co-created and scalable
technologies that attract commercial investment.
"We need to innovate with social purpose in order to overcome the
barriers of time, distance and lack of information that prevent millions
of children from surviving and realizing their potential," said Erica
Kochi, Co-lead, UNICEF Innovation. "By working together with ARM we
improve our ability to develop new technologies that impact children and
help them grow up healthy, educated and able to positively contribute to
their families, communities and wider economies."
"Technology should be used to create opportunity for all; improving
child health, education and prospects, and access to it should not be
governed by economic status or geography," said Simon Segars, CEO, ARM.
"We have spent 25 years enabling life-changing technologies and together
with UNICEF's innovation experts we believe this partnership can deliver
a positive social impact for children all-around the world."
Today's partnership announcement has evolved from a growing
understanding between UNICEF and ARM that technology can have a defining
impact on children's lives. With that shared view, UNICEF and ARM aim to
drive sector-wide change, creating an ecosystem of technology companies
that explore the potential social impact of new technologies they
develop.
See a short video interview with Simon Segars, ARM CEO and Erica Kochi,
Co-lead, UNICEF Innovation on ARMFlix.
'Wearables for Good' design challenge The launch of the
'Wearables for Good' design challenge with frog signifies the
commencement of UNICEF and ARM's partnership. The competition panel will
assess the entries on several levels including product and service
design that disrupts or improves the status quo, sustainability of
technology nd potential impact at scale.
Entrants will be guided by the 'Use
Case Handbook' created by UNICEF and frog. The handbook outlines the
challenges that need to be addressed, as well as considerations, context
and principles for good design.
Two winners will be selected at the end of the design challenge. Each
winner will receive $15,000 funding alongside incubation and mentorship
support from ARM and frog.
"Today, wearable technologies are primarily focused on applications such
as fitness and the quantified self," said Denise Gershbein, Executive
Creative Director at frog. "However, there are countless opportunities
for wearable and sensor technology to make more of an impact in emerging
markets, particularly in the next wave of social impact development.
With the 'Wearables for Good' challenge we hope to foster dialogue among
new partners and increase cross-discipline innovation."
The 'Wearables for Good' design challenge goes live today, May 19, 2015,
and entry details can be found at http://wearablesforgood.com.
Notes to Editors
UNICEF and ARM each have a history of developing technology-based
solutions that improve social good, including:
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Literacy
Bridge, which is jointly supported by UNICEF and ARM, is a
portable listening device being used in Ghana used to relay health,
agricultural and education information. The Talking Book is being
trialled by 40,000 people in the first mass trials
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ARM provides support to SimPrints,
a portable biometric reader that compares a person's fingerprints to a
database containing medical records. It is being tested in Bangladesh
and more than 1,000 people are now registered on the system
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UNICEF's U-Report
is a mobile phone, text-based service designed to give young people a
chance to voice their opinions on important issues. To date U-Report
is live in 14 countries and reaches 700,000 young people, with plans
to scale to 20 countries, reaching 1 million by the end of 2015
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UNICEF's EduTrac
is a data collection system that uses basic mobile phones to support
and strengthen education systems by enabling front-line education
workers to report on indicators and get critical information, such as
the location of supplies, in real-time. In Uganda, Afghanistan and
Zimbabwe, educators are using EduTrac to report on indicators, such as
absenteeism, cases of violence against children, curriculum progress
and supervision visits.
About ARM ARM
is at the heart of the world's most advanced digital products. Our
technology enables the creation of new markets and transformation of
industries and society. We design scalable, energy-efficient processors
and related technologies to deliver the intelligence in applications
ranging from sensors to servers, including smartphones, tablets,
enterprise infrastructure and the Internet of Things. Our innovative
technology is licensed by ARM Partners who have shipped more than 60
billion System on Chip (SoCs) containing our intellectual property since
the company began in 1990. Together with our Connected Community, we are
breaking down barriers to innovation for developers, designers and
engineers, ensuring a fast, reliable route to market for leading
electronics companies. Learn more and join the conversation at http://community.arm.com.
About UNICEF UNICEF
promotes the rights and well-being of every child, in everything we do.
Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to
translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort
on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of
all children, everywhere. For more information about UNICEF visit: www.unicef.org.
Follow us on Twitter
and Facebook.
UNICEF
Innovation is an interdisciplinary team of individuals around the
world tasked with identifying, prototyping, and scaling technologies and
practices that strengthen UNICEF's work. We build and scale innovations
that improve children's lives around the world. For more information
about UNICEF's work in innovation, visit: www.unicef.org/innovation
and www.unicefstories.org.
Follow us on Twitter.
ABOUT frog frog
is a global product strategy and design firm. Our work solves problems,
anticipates the future and advances the human experience. We are more
than 600 strategists, researchers, designers, and technologists who
consult and partner with clients across industries. Headquartered in San
Francisco, we have offices in Amsterdam, Austin, Boston, London, Milan,
Munich, New York, Seattle, Shanghai and Singapore. www.frogdesign.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150519005325/en/
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