Events & Convening
Convening thought leadership in issues affecting children.
Expert Consultation on Age-Related Public Expenditure and Policies
12 - 13 April 2023: In the lead up to the launch of a new report Too Little Too Late, the UNICEF Innocenti – Global Office of Research and Foresight and the Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy convened an expert consultation at Innocenti’s office in Florence, Italy, to discuss the basic set of comparable data that countries should collect to monitor public policies and public finance for children, including domestic expenditures and foreign assistance.
Prospects for Children and Youth in the Polycrisis
8 March 2023:
Right now, the world is being confronted by a series of multiple and near-simultaneous shocks amplified by a world that is more interdependent than ever before – and many are calling this phenomenon a “polycrisis”. No matter what it’s called, it will have an enormous impact on children across the world.
At UNICEF, we recently analyzed the trends that we believe will impact children in the future, and they have much to lose. But while those trends are worrying, there are also positive signs.
This webinar will build upon our analysis and unpack some of the most pressing challenges facing children today and will feature thought-provoking contributions not just from sector analysts and experts, but from the very young people who will be most affected by the polycrisis.
Best of UNICEF Research 2022
14 December 2022: For the past 10 years, the Best of UNICEF Research annual competition, run by UNICEF Innocenti, has invited UNICEF colleagues around the world to submit their latest and best research for children.
Latest events
A Gender-Transformative, Life-Course Approach to Ending Violence Against Girls, Boys and Women
On May 25th, 2022, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of the United Kingdom (FCDO), Wellspring Philanthropic Fund, the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI), and UNICEF, co-hosted a virtual partner roundtable discussion entitled: A Gender-Transformative, Life-Course Approach to Ending Violence Against Girls, Boys and Women.
25 May 2022
UNICEF at the International Social and Behavior Change Communication (SBCC) Summit 2022
The Social and Behavior Change Communication International Summit will reflect on how what we have learned through the COVID-19 pandemic can inform and inspire us as we use Social and Behavior Change Communication to tackle other global challenges, most importantly those of disparity – be they disparities of wealth, health, access, gender or education.
5 - 9 December 2022
Monitoring the Social Costs of Climate Change for Low-and Middle-Income Countries
This event, organized by UNICEF-Innocenti, will provide an opportunity for leading experts on social spending to discuss a new report from UNICEF, ‘Monitoring the Social Spending Costs of Climate Change for Low-and Middle-Income Countries’ which argues that investing in social spending will be key to managing the climate crisis.
17 November 2022
Leading Minds Conference 2022
The 2022 edition of the Leading Minds for Children and Young People conference “On the Vital Importance of Child Identity”, will be held on 2-4 November in the Salone Brunelleschi of the Istituto degli Innocenti, in Florence, Italy. The Conference is co-hosted by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UNICEF Innocenti — Global Office of Research and Foresight.
The conference will bring together some of the world’s leading thinkers — scholars, scientists, innovators, influencers, philanthropists, governments and of course young people — to understand the identity challenges that children and young people face. These range from the most traditional forms of identity — such as age, name, nationality, and family relations specified in the opening articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child — to 21st century challenges related to mass migration, cyber identity, activist status, and transnationalism, among many other topics.
2 - 4 November 2022
Data Systems and Data Use in Education: Data Must Speak (DMS) Positive Deviance Research
The Global Partnership for Education Knowledge and Innovation Exchange (KIX), in partnership with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), is pleased to invite you to the Third Annual KIX Symposium, which will be held virtually on October 12-13, 2022 from 12 NN – 1:30 PM CET.
12 - 13 October 2022
What Makes Me? European Launch
The report What Makes Me? Core Capacities for Living and Learning in Childhood, explores how core capacities develop over the early part of the life course, and how they contribute to children's personal well-being and development. Join the European launch to learn about the core capacities and why they matter for every child.
11 October 2022
UNICEF at the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI) Forum 2022
UNICEF is proud to collaborate with the Sexual Violence Research Initiative (SVRI), including for the implementation of the SVRI Forum. The SVRI Forum is the largest global research conference on violence against women, and other forms of violence driven by gender inequality in low and middle-income countries. The conference provides a global space where delegates build knowledge, expand their network, collaborate, and share knowledge with key decision-makers in the field of violence against girls, boys and women.
19 - 23 September 2022
Donor Collaboration on Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning for Development Impact
This session recounted the compelling story of voluntary donor coordination in the form of a community of purpose spanning 5 countries and 9 donor agencies; the challenges and triumphs of virtual collaboration for knowledge and learning; and how fostering connections between international development donors led to the co-creation of a shared theory of change for the contribution of effective KM and organizational learning for development impact.
22 June 2022
The State of the World’s Children 2023 Conference
Florence, 9–10 June 2022 – UNICEF experts from around the world gathered at the UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti for the first major in-person event since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to discuss the next State of the World’s Children publication on children and immunization. The meeting itself was a testament to the power of vaccines.
9 - 10 June 2022
Places & Spaces: Shaping policies for environments and children's well-being
This panel discussion, timed with the global launch of Report Card 17, comes at a moment when policymakers are seeking to ensure child well-being during a protracted global pandemic and with mounting climate change challenges. Join us for a rich discussion with youth activists, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners on shaping better policies for environments and children’s well-being. Panelists to be announced.
24 May 2022
UNICEF Innocenti presents Vite a Colori report on the impact of COVID-19 on the lives of children and adolescents in Italy
UNICEF and the Authority for Children and Adolescents, an independent body that oversees the implementation of the rights of children in the Lombardy region of Italy, Riccardo Bettiga, presented the Report "Vite a Colori” (Life in Colors) about the experiences, perceptions, and opinions on the COVID-19 pandemic of children and adolescents in Italy.
12 April 2022
Future Frontiers of Childhood and Adolescence
The UNICEF Office of Research - Innocenti and UNICEF Latin America and the Caribbean Regional Office, with the support of On Think Tanks, and CIUP (Centro de Investigación de la Universidad del Pacífico) are convening three policy discussions to promote reflection and fruitful discussion around the concept of Future Frontiers of Childhood and Adolescence in Latin America and the Caribbean.
8 - 10 March 2022
Shortfalls in Social Spending in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Join researchers, experts, educators, and policymakers for a one-hour virtual policy panel discussion on Shortfalls in Social Spending Worldwide. A new report from UNICEF, ‘Shortfalls in Social Spending in Low- and Middle-Income Countries. COVID-19 and Shrinking Finance for Social Spending’ argues that, in order to meet the rights of all to basic social services, greater mobilisation of both domestic and international resources will be needed to boost social spending in the wake of COVID-19. It calculates that low-and middle-income countries will need to spend an additional 0.9% of GDP on education; 4.7% of GDP on health; and 0.6% of GDP on social protection. Failure to meet these targets is currently resulting in annual shortfalls of, on average, $281 per child (education); $513 per capita (health); $66 per capita (social assistance). However, the fiscal space to achieve adequate spending on social services remains constrained in many countries. Join us as our experts discuss how to approach this challenge, bolster finance for the SDGs and address widening inequalities post COVID-19.
17 February 2022
The Evidence Commission Report Launch
COVID-19 has created a once-in-a-generation focus on evidence among governments, businesses and non-governmental organizations, many types of professionals, and citizens. Now is the time to systematize the aspects of using evidence that are going well and address the many shortfalls, which means creating the capacities, opportunities and motivation to use evidence to address societal challenge, and putting in place the structures and processes to sustain them.
27 January 2022
Prioritizing Learning During COVID 19: Launch of Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel Report
A new report, “Prioritizing Learning During Covid-19”, featuring evidence from UNICEF Innocenti, provides recommendations from the GEEAP, an independent, cross-disciplinary body composed of leading education experts, including a Nobel Prize winner.
26 - 27 January 2022
Cross-sectoral Learning in Implementation Research
Implementation Research is an innovative approach to systems strengthening in which decision-makers and implementers use research to overcome implementation bottlenecks and improve outcomes.
24 - 31 January 2022