The UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre is the organization’s dedicated research cluster. Established in 1988, the Centre has over the past two decades produced studies that have explored neglected areas of child rights and well-being, informing policy and practice in numerous countries around the world.

The Centre has as its prime objectives to improve international understanding of the issues relating to children’s rights, to promote economic policies that advance the cause of children, and to help facilitate full implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child universally.
The Centre’s research aims to advise decision-makers in government, the private sector and civil society, to influence policies and spending priorities for children, and to provide a solid evidence-base to inform UNICEF programme interventions in countries across the globe.
The IRC research agenda feeds into the UNICEF Office of Research which will lead, support and guide UNICEF in generating, capturing, analysing and disseminating new knowledge in support of its programmes and policies.
Innocenti's work promotes knowledge generation to improve the lives of the world’s most vulnerable children. The Centre develops partnerships and collaborates to fill research gaps and to address emerging and sensitive issues. Research in the areas of social and economic policies and the implementation of international standards embraces children in industrialized, middle-income and developing countries.
With UNICEF support, and through financial contributions from governments and civil society, the Centre pursues its work in cooperation with other parts of UNICEF as well as academic and policy institutions around the world.

Expertise, experience and strategy

Building on more than 20 years of experience, the Innocenti Research Centre focuses on two broad thematic areas: (a) social and economic policies and children, and (b) child protection and implementation of international standards for children. The research projects provide an important interface between the field experiences and policy linkages of UNICEF and the academic community.
IRC’s agenda reflects three interrelated strategies:

• evidence-based analysis, drawing on quantitative and qualitative information, the application of appropriate methodologies, and the development of recommendations concerning child well-being and the realization of children’s rights.
• partnerships with a wide range of research and policy institutions and development actors, within and beyond the United Nations system.
• communication and leveraging of research findings and recommendations to support policy dialogue and development and advocacy initiatives.

The Centre produces a wide range of publications, often in multiple languages, that contribute to the global debate on children’s issues and include a wide range of opinions. As a centre of excellence, Innocenti also collaborates with external partners, issuing titles jointly produced with leading academic institutions and NGOs, and often seeks contributions from child rights specialists from a range of disciplines. Innocenti’s activities form a distinct contribution to the research agenda of UNICEF, which also reflects work carried out through the Office of Research, headquarters divisions and offices of Programmes, Policy and Practice, Emergency Operations and Supply, as well as through Regional and Country Offices.

IRC collaborates with its host institution in Florence, the Istituto degli Innocenti – an organization established in the 15th century as a facility for the care and protection of abandoned children – in selected areas of work. Critical core funding for the Centre is generously provided by the Government of Italy, which has supported Innocenti since its formation in 1988. Financial support for specific projects is also provided by other governments, international institutions and private sources, including UNICEF National Committees.