Innovation Projects run by UN Entities

IOM X seeks to move beyond raising awareness to affecting behaviour change. It does so by applying Communication for Development (C4D) and BeSci principles such as social influence and implementation prompts to encourage young people to make informed migration decisions. The IOM X model has been applied internationally, including most recently in West Africa where it is called WAKA Well. The model facilitates a process where a tailored multi-media campaign targeting a specified community is led by its youth and other community members, who direct audiences to informational material available in their communities. In order to approximately assess the impact of the campaigns on behaviour change, surveys measuring the knowledge, attitudes and practices among the target audience were conducted before and after the campaign.

Leveraging a network of activists, the LEARN.ACT.SHARE. camp in Belarus engages young people in the prevention of human trafficking presenting information in a way to promote clarity, awareness and action. As of January 2021, the camp alumni had reached out to 4,380 peers with their campaigns and received positive feedback, which demonstrates young people’s behavioural change stemming from their participation in the project. Alumni of the programme also contribute to community discussions and debates about human trafficking which serves as a testimony to the project’s sustainability.

"Somos Colmena" is a C4D campaign which leverages behavioural science working with communities to develop campaigns that help fellow community members make more informed decisions about their life plans, recognise fake information, and identify opportunities for local development and regular migration. The virtual community “Somos Colmena” is part of a strategy that informs and facilitates behaviour change. For example, in a campaign conducted in 2020 in Costa Rica, “Somos Colmena” referred irregular migrants to an Information Hub that assisted them in their regularisation process.

The Nudging toolkit supports colleagues in integrating and leveraging BeSci to address gender inequality challenges identified in employment policies. The toolkit provides practical cases and is used in workshops in which the Centre explores BeSci in employment-related contexts. It has also helped to make the theoretical frameworks of nudging more accessible to colleagues.

The Centre supports colleagues in designing training programmes in a behaviourally-informed manner by creating a structure which helps learners pursue their desired paths. The approach has been piloted in two Train-the-Trainer fora and is now offered as a tailor-made event for organisations or institutions. One event has led to the publication of Learnscapes (2015), which explores how the Training Centre can apply BeSci to encourage more meaningful interactions. The project works closely together with architects and explores how physical and digital spaces can nudge towards specific knowledge sharing behaviours. This project will inform the creation of a Learning Innovation Lab, which will focus on nudges for learning and behavioural change.

In Georgia, a study revealed that 14 percent of ever-partnered women have been abused by their partners. UNDP investigated what keeps bystanders from reporting violence. The results have shaped a behaviourally-informed campaign that is being rolled out across the country to change the perception that intimate partner violence is a private matter and increase bystanders’ and survivors’ confidence and motivation to take action. A randomised controlled trial is being conducted to assess the impact on reporting rates.

UNDP Country Offices in Sudan and Yemen piloted the use of BeSci to increase the effectiveness of interventions designed to disrupt the process of radicalisation and violent extremism. Sudan focused on increasing the effectiveness of education programmes targeting prison populations and Yemen on increasing attendance in psychosocial support meetings. The pilots used BeSci tools, including values affirmation and commitment devices. The application of BeSci in this area has since expanded to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Pakistan. Practical tools and lessons learned from these experiences have been compiled in a knowledge product.

UNDP in the Maldives is leveraging BeSci tools to address social and cultural barriers that limit girls’ career aspirations in STEM, increase their knowledge and build confidence to undertake STEM-related education and jobs. UNDP is working to pilot nudges to understand what behavioural change campaign can spark the intended change.

The Ghana Accelerator Lab team is deploying Behavioural Insight techniques to understand how individuals make decisions on recycling. Using personas, such as Eco-Conscious Ama, the Lab tries to understand recycling behaviours. Early results indicate that households and businesses prefer their recyclable waste to be collected at their doorsteps, instead of taking it to recycling points. Information-based interventions using localised nudges appealing to social norms and cognitive dissonance resulted in increased plastics collection.

The AMR programme is using BeSci to promote the appropriate use of antimicrobials and improve food production.

Dimitra Clubs are voluntary, informal groups for women, men and youth who discuss common problems and determine ways to address them by acting together and using local resources. Agriculture is a common theme, but it’s not the only one; other topics include climate change, education, health, infrastructure, nutrition, peace and women’s status. Although FAO facilitates their set up and provides them with training and coaching, the clubs themselves are self-managed.

Pulse Lab Jakarta ran a behavioural experiment in the form of an 8-week WhatsApp campaign aimed at disseminating a set of key messages to bank agents. The messages (i.e. graphics, comics, written text) were sent to shop owners (who were also bank agents), urging them to encourage their customers to save the change from purchases made at their shops in their bank accounts. The messages shared as part of the #TabunginAja (“#JustSaveIt”) campaign, were informed by BeSci and included setting specific goals and applying rules of thumb to prompt the target behaviour (e.g. to encourage agents to ask their customers to save their shopping change if the amount is less than USD0.35).

Most training initiatives are currently delivered through either online self-paced resources or face2face courses. Opportunities for the latter are usually limited (due to high costs) and have also been negatively affected by COVID travel restrictions resulting in a small percentage of staff trained. Virtual Reality applied to training has been proved to be one of the most efficient and effective training solutions for a variety of technical areas. WFP has run a pilot training using a virtual environment and customised avatars during which supply chain team members and other participants could interact all together WFP is exploring providing VR training solutions to a wider audience in areas such as Supply Chain, Emergency services, Administrative services.

A team of 5 WHO staff based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia developed a VR prototype with a UK-based partner to train staff in Basic Life Support or CPR for the WHO's LEAD Innovation Challenge 2020. The prototype was tested by over 30 staff and was presented to the Director-General and WHO staff in December 2020. One of its standout features is the staff performance tracking and training reminder portal developed specifically for this prototype. WHO is currently working to secure funding and support to further improve and expand this life-saving system using the popular Oculus Quest 2 headsets.

In November 2020, the WFP Jordan Innovation Hub launched a pilot with Decapolis; a blockchain-based platform that tracks the food product through the whole supply chain, from the farm to the retail shop. Blockchain technology builds a chain of digital records that cannot be broken or tampered with. This provides a highly trustable system for tracing food quality and safety. Decapolis trains Jordanian smallholder farmers in agricultural best practice for optimal crop quality production, including proper handling and usage of pesticides and other additives as well as techniques for avoiding bacterial contamination. Soil and water quality is ensured through laboratory testing at least twice during the crop cycle. Simultaneously, smallholder farmers use the Decapolis platform to register and prove their products' compliance with local and international food safety standards. Retailers can also access and purchase these certified premium crops through the same traceability platform.

goLandRegistry is an innovative, blockchain technology-based software solution that supports government efforts to ensure systematic, transparent, and secure online land registry management and data verification. It is part of a collaboration between OICT and UN-Habitat to provide a framework for the development of emerging technology tools and digital platforms to improve urban design and planning in South Asia. goLandRegistry leverages the public hybrid blockchain platform LTO Network for land registry deeds anchoring and verification. goLandRegitry aims at supporting Member States by: - Enabling survey, mapping and registration of land and properties in urban informal settlements - Employing emerging technology to map the property registration process and ensure that land occupancy certificates details are anchored into a decentralized public blockchain environment - Enabling property owners to demonstrate the authenticity of their land titles independently through the Open Source blockchain verification tool

UNDP is using distributed ledger technology to help cooperatives better market and differentiate their products on the back of their sustainability certifications, creating products with provable certification claims and traceability back to their origin. This traceability is being leveraged to sell "proof packages" containing all this information to downstream buyers, driving more value directly back to a cooperative similar to how impact credits work in other industries.

The first digital platform for food donation in Serbia „Plate by Plate“ allows food donations with just a click. Through the platform, humanitarian organisations have direct access to information about food availability from the moment retail shops publish their information about food donations, after which they need to reserve the donation and collect it. The platform is based on blockchain technology, making the whole process traceable from the first to the last step, more transparent and secure.

With the understanding that greater awareness could favor behavioral changes that help contain the spread of the pandemic, UNDP's Accelerator Lab in Uruguay carried out two experiments to validate the following hypothesis: the use of media and specific messages aimed at different population groups contributes to raising awareness about individual and collective responsibility to control the spread of the Coronavirus. On the one hand, in the first experiment (N = 171 people), two audiovisual campaigns that gained popularity globally were analyzed, sending different videos to different groups, one of German origin (emphasis on “stay at home” and “be a hero”), and another Spanish origin (emphasis "do not participate in parties," the negative impact of doing so). The main conclusions obtained were: • Regardless of having seen any of the videos, the population is considerably aware of the virus's contagiousness since 95% of people believe that they could be infected with COVID-19. • However, 79% consider that preventive health measures are easy to comply with, and 88% that their actions can influence other people's health. • Among those who consider that prevention measures are difficult to comply with (21%), the perception of having been exposed to situations with a risk of contagion increases. • The Spanish video caused greater changes in the perception of COVID than the German video. This could be due to the timelessness of "stay at home." On the other hand, in the second experiment (N = 200), a letter was sent through the Uruguayan National Mail service, between December 30th and 31st, along with a face mask. The homes' addresses in Montevideo were taken randomly. The letter called “Your future self” sought to appeal to a positive message regarding how people can act, particularly in celebrating the end of the year and the new year. Then, calls were made between January 5 and 6, 2021, to the households to ask a series of questions, both to the people to whom the letters were sent and the control group. The main findings identified in this experiment were: • The letter was well-valued by the population, particularly by adults over 65 years old. 44% of those who received it indicated that the letter contributed a lot to them. This assessment increases in those over 65 years old. • Adults over 65 who received the letter responded more moderately to how difficult it has been to comply with the recommended measures at the end of the New Year’s Eve. On the contrary, in the control and untreated group, the vast majority answered: “very easy.” • Older adults who receive the letter declare to a greater extent having reduced the number of people with whom they celebrated the New Year’s Eve compared to the previous year (67% treated group, 53% control group) • 90% of the treated group and 85% of the control group do not consider that situations of possible contagions were generated in their year-end celebration. The letter does not seem to affect the response. Still, it is highlighted that the perception of the risk of contagion could be more present in the population outside their homes and not so much in their intra-family activities. • The delivery of face masks can be valued positively and contribute to the prevention of infections, at least in the population approached by this experiment, where the majority (62%) used it less than a week after receiving it. It is important to note that various comments on the letter's impact have also been received in the process, and they are not included in this quantitative analysis. For example, people stated that they kept the letter, shared it with their family, or even left it next to the Christmas tree. These emotional factors are not negligible in a context where people must maintain certain behaviors that require effort. In this proof of concept that comprised both experiments, the relevance of contacting people when they are most likely to be receptive is concluded, with messages tailored to the circumstances, acting quickly. The temporality of the messages is key: it is not enough for the message to be clear. It must also be transmitted at the right time. In both experiments, it is possible to identify that the population tends to declare that it is relatively easy or very easy to comply with the recommended health prevention measures. This process was carried out in its entirety in one month and creates an opportunity to continue working in partnership with academics, organizations, and civil society to overcome the health emergency to achieve sustainable development goals.

The project is building a platform to support traceability, certification and incentives across the livestock sector through a digital system, that motivates farmers to adopt more sustainable pasture management. The project will build a traceability solution for the remaining steps of the value chain as part of Phase 2 (from slaughterhouse up to the final consumer), while integrating that with work already underway in Phase 1 on traceability (from the ranchers up to the slaughterhouse). This is to ensure full transparency and traceability across the entire supply chain while linking price benefits and incentives back to cattle ranchers.

UNDP Lebanon has explored blockchain-based solutions for the renewable energy sector in Lebanon. This study has first identified these real-world applications and development of commercial-size blockchain-based energy business models through desk researches, interviews and the collection of working use-cases from the fast-evolving blockchain space. Taking into consideration the specific context of Lebanon, the study has identified suitable blockchain-enable solutions for the uptake of renewable energy in relatively short-term as well as the set of recommendations for deployment. Furthermore, in collaboration with FlexiDAO, one of the leading blockchain players in the energy space, tracking more than 3TWh of renewable energy per year, CEDRO Project has initiated the pilot project to examine the first unbundled and voluntary market for renewable energy certificates (REC) for Lebanon by leveraging blockchain technology. FlexiDAO have showcased its software RESpring for four implemented solar PV pilot plants in Lebanon. The objective of this partnership is to showcase the technical feasibility and market interest of establishing this certificate marketplace in order to support the energy transition in Lebanon.

The problem: Women and adolescent childbearing girls living in the slums in Bangladesh lack financial and geographic access to an evidence-based, timely, referral process from the midwifery centre to a specific referral hospital when required for continued management of high risk pregnant women and obstetric emergencies. Currently, there is no systematic process in place (from the midwifery centre to a specific hospital) with a dependable transport method and communication pathway. This results in childbearing women and adolescents experiencing a lack of access to comprehensive emergency obstetric and new-born care (CEmONC), maternal and new-born morbidity and mortality, and increasing impoverishment. Approximately 15-20% of women experience some type of complication during labour that requires a higher level of care. This is compounded in the slums where there is low use of facility-based birth, higher rates of maternal mortality compared to national average, and a lack of standardization for operations and communication. Size and importance of the problem: In Bangladesh, the urban population is rapidly increasing from 23% in 2011, to 37.2% in 2019, and is projected to be 55.7% by 2050. Only 13% of the slum dwellers have easy and affordable access to health care facilities. Additionally, because of Bangladesh’s lack of UHC and high out of pocket costs, slum dwellers have limited access to healthcare. Less than half of all deliveries take place in health care facilities due to preference for home environment, poor quality of care and disrespect and abuse at health care facilities, as well as fear of potential surgery and costs. To summarize, the growing urban population in Bangladesh live in densely populated slums with limited access to facility-based birth, respectful maternity care, and comprehensive emergency obstetric and new-born care services (CEmONC) which resulted in low rates of facility-based birth as well as high rates of maternal mortality. It is not just the lack of community based health care facilities and skilled service providers providing safe and compassionate care, but additionally they lack a referral and transportation system to access higher level health facilities that can provide continued quality emergency care when needed that is dignified, financially affordable and geographically accessible. This ultimately results in unsafe births without a skilled attendant, and increased maternal and new-born morbidity and mortality. Proposed solution: Our 24/7 referral platform will provide access to continued comprehensive emergency obstetric and new-born care services when needed at the referral hospital for women by reducing the delay in reaching the hospital and improving quality of care. Using a structured process for communication between midwife to driver, and the referring midwife and the receiving health care provider- seamless referrals and continuity of care will be provided. The main users of our platform are the midwives working in the midwifery centres and the transport drivers, both in the urban slum areas of Dhaka in Bangladesh, as well as the receiving health care provider at the referral facility. However, the pregnant women are the main beneficiaries of this intervention. How this solution is different: Currently there is no structured, designated referral pathway or service available. Therefore, the proposed solution is the pioneer and unique one and as such, cannot be compared with others. By engaging the three parts of a successful referral- the midwife, driver and receiving health care provider we create a comprehensive system that engages the users and strengthens the quality of care with the improved communication and efficiency. Vision for the project: We envision that all women living in the urban slums in Bangladesh have access to 24/7 dignified, quality and evidence-based delivery services- including comprehensive emergency services when needed- without any financial and geographical barriers to access. This will only happen when there is a strong referral system in place to seamlessly refer from midwifery centre to the nearest CEmOC facilities both Public and Private with free and/or subsidized services, that is with affordable cost. To this goal, we would like to scale up Midwifery led Delivery Centre in Slums with clinical practice guidelines and operational standards, linked to a structured referral system. This we believe will significantly improve maternal health status of the urban slum women in Bangladesh. Contribution to UHC: The proposed innovation ensures equitable access to quality maternal health care for the women in slum populations, realizing their rights. It reduces preventable mortality and morbidity and minimizes the health, financial and economic burden on families and communities. Under the innovative financing model, where the private sector will provide free and subsidized services in exchange for evidenced based referrals, will reduce out-of-pocket spending and the catastrophic impact of health care on the poor. Lastly, it will contribute to the realisation of 3 zeros with special focus to zero preventable maternal mortality while zero unmet need for family planning, and zero gender-based violence are the ultimate outcomes.

For crisis response measures to be effective, they need to be mirrored in public behaviour. The Accelerator Lab in Sudan is looking to understand – and nudge – consumer behaviour and the systematic implications of binge consumption on public health, economy and society. While particularly salient in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, with hand sanitiser flying off the shelves and price increases of 280% on masks, this work is part of a bigger effort to identify and test multiple entry points for supporting responsive governance in Sudan. In addition to social media analysis, opinion polls, and more, the Sudan Accelerator Lab is preparing to dispatch an SMS survey to a diverse sample of 635,000 people, including nomads, migrants, homemakers, rural populations, the elderly as well as youth. The leads emerging from the responses (estimated at 2%, or 12,700) will inform the Lab’s behavioural interventions, including targeted messaging to discourage panic-buying.

The Anatomy of Action (AoA), a social media tool kit designed to help people (and organizations that work with people), take evidenced based impactful action to live better and lighter. Our lifestyles are in the 5 main domains: food, stuff, move, money and stuff.

To address today's environmental challenges (e.g. clean air and water, waste disposal), communities need to play an active role in solution mapping. To make this process as effective and exciting as possible, we’ve developed a special activity called Community Safari©. A Community Safari is a two-day adventure that brings together the members of a community to collectively identify, discuss and test ideas to solve challenges and coordinate follow-up actions, using nature-based solutions. That is – innovative solutions based on the way natural ecosystems function.

Backed by blockchain technology, CedarCoin will promote the reforestation and protection of Lebanon’s ancient cedar forests, the symbol of the country. One CedarCoin will be assigned to a specific tree. For each tree planted, a CedarCoin will be distributed to its investor and to the communities hosting the trees; encouraging reforestation and rewarding environmentally-conscious behaviour. CedarCoin will raise money to buy more trees and finance replanting programmes. In future, CedarCoin owners will be able to ‘adopt’ a specific tree, and see its location and GPS coordinates. CedarCoin will also be used to promote solar photovoltaic technology—allowing supporters to invest in solar panels to replace carbon-generated power. Investors will be paid in CedarCoins equal to the electricity and the income the panels generate. Live Lebanon’s mobile app, Lebanon Connect, will be expanded to enable direct contributions to crowd investing campaigns. Participants will be able to buy CedarCoins through digital wallets such as Lykke, a Swiss-based free exchange global marketplace. For as little as US$20, Lebanese expatriates will be able to digitally connect to their home country as well as to a community of investors and public and private sector organizations, and ensure that the trees that have stood as the symbol of their country for thousands of years have a healthy future.

A web and mobile based decision support system is proposed to enable health centers, implementing partners and commodity distribution organizations capture data on supplies and consumption to enable the district health office better understand consumption trends through easy to understand visualization tools and support accurate decision making. With adequately distributed supplies of Family planning commodities, it is envisioned that there will be accelerated access to contraception hence reducing in unmet need in Uganda.