UNICEF Innocenti

What is in the best interests of children in a digital world? Discover what children in #Uganda had to say ⬇️ UNICEF Innocenti is holding groundbreaking consultations and creative workshops with children across seven countries, to hear directly from children on: 🤳 what they think is in their best interests when it comes to the digital world, ⚖️ how their rights and interests should be balanced, 👩💻 how they envision their digital futures. Find out more about the research here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dchWC4F4 UNICEF Uganda

This week UNICEF’s Jasmina Byrne was in Seoul with data protection authorities from around the world, to launch the new UNICEF Policy Recommendations on Data Governance for EdTech at #GPA Seoul 2025   Children’s data, when processed through EdTech, can have profound impacts on their rights – including their rights to privacy, education, non-discrimination and autonomy. Data governance for EdTech is currently fragmented, and regulation often lags behind technological advancements. UNICEF Innocenti worked with UNESCO, the Global Privacy Assembly, and a group of expert advisors from around the world, to look at how the data governance landscape can be improved to make EdTech more rights respecting for children everywhere.   🌟 Follow us over the next 10 days as we explore each of the 10 Policy Recommendations on Data Governance for EdTech and how to put them into practice. 🌟   These Policy Recommendations were informed by the Landscape Review on Data Governance for EdTech written by Tech Legality which you can read here: https://lnkd.in/d-227gSa They were consulted on with experts across five regions including from the Alana Institute in Brazil, the Paradigm Initiative in Zimbabwe, the European Edtech Alliance in Germany, the Public Interest Privacy Center in the United States, and the Digital Futures Lab in India.     Emma Day, Melanie Penagos, Urvashi Aneja, Issa G. ,Zelda Gerard, Pedro Hartung, Patricia Kosseim, Milja Laakso, Kristo Lehtonen, Sonia Livingstone, Thobekile Matimbe, Eugenia O., Mariana Rozo-Paz, Roy Saurabh, PhD, Friederike Schüür, Josua Sitompul, Amelia Vance, Stefaan Verhulst, PhD, Christopher Wilson, Tinomudaishe James Chipoyera

A few tech bits to share …   ➡️ ARTICLE: I study AI cheating. Here’s what the data actually says (Vox) Early evidence from the USA suggests that AI has changed the method but not necessarily the amount of cheating that was already happening, writes AI+Education Faculty Lead Victor Lee. Includes four key questions for teachers and schools to consider about student AI use. https://archive.is/XuEbg   ➡️ REPORT: A New Stanford Analysis Reveals Who’s Losing Jobs to AI (Stanford Uni) 👉 A recent report from the Stanford Digital Economy Lab finds that in the professions most exposed to AI automation, including software engineering and customer service, employment for 22- to 25-year-olds has declined significantly. 👉 In contrast, workers in more hands-on professions, including health aides, maintenance workers, and taxi drivers, have seen employment hold steady or actually grow. 👉 Stanford’s report isn’t all doom and gloom. The ADP data shows that the employment rates of older workers in high AI-exposure fields are holding strong. For workers aged 30 and over, for example, employment in the highest AI-exposure categories grew between 6-12% from late 2022 to May 2025. This could suggest that older workers have tacit knowledge that AIs struggle to replicate—or they have more power in their organizational structures and are therefore harder to fire.  https://lnkd.in/dqBDGdpq   ➡️ REPORT: ChatGPT growth most in low- and middle-income countries in last year (NBER) Comparing May 2024 to May 2025, we see that the adoption of ChatGPT grew dramatically, but also that there was disproportionate growth in low to middle-income countries ($10,000–40,000 GDP-per-capita). Overall, we find that many low-to-middle income countries have experienced high growth in ChatGPT adoption.  https://lnkd.in/dFHasid6

🤔 Why does participation matter to you? For the UN Youth Office, meaningful youth participation is about recognizing, valuing, and nurturing young people’s contributions as agents of positive change. It’s not just token involvement—it’s about creating inclusive partnerships, fostering intergenerational collaboration, ensuring sustained engagement, and establishing mechanisms for accountability and feedback to foster trust and transparency. 🌍 Half the global population is under 30 — transformative change is impossible without their active engagement. What’s your reason? Read UNICEF Innocenti's article "Why Participation Matters: the evidence for involving children and youth in policy and decision making" to learn more.  🔗 https://lnkd.in/dYjxzKse #YouthVoices #MeaningfulYouthEngagement #WhyParticipationMatters #YoungVisionaries #YouthLead

A few tech bits to share …   ➡️ ARTICLE: I study AI cheating. Here’s what the data actually says (Vox) Early evidence from the USA suggests that AI has changed the method but not necessarily the amount of cheating that was already happening, writes AI+Education Faculty Lead Victor Lee. Includes four key questions for teachers and schools to consider about student AI use. https://archive.is/XuEbg   ➡️ REPORT: A New Stanford Analysis Reveals Who’s Losing Jobs to AI (Stanford Uni) 👉 A recent report from the Stanford Digital Economy Lab finds that in the professions most exposed to AI automation, including software engineering and customer service, employment for 22- to 25-year-olds has declined significantly. 👉 In contrast, workers in more hands-on professions, including health aides, maintenance workers, and taxi drivers, have seen employment hold steady or actually grow. 👉 Stanford’s report isn’t all doom and gloom. The ADP data shows that the employment rates of older workers in high AI-exposure fields are holding strong. For workers aged 30 and over, for example, employment in the highest AI-exposure categories grew between 6-12% from late 2022 to May 2025. This could suggest that older workers have tacit knowledge that AIs struggle to replicate—or they have more power in their organizational structures and are therefore harder to fire.  https://lnkd.in/dqBDGdpq   ➡️ REPORT: ChatGPT growth most in low- and middle-income countries in last year (NBER) Comparing May 2024 to May 2025, we see that the adoption of ChatGPT grew dramatically, but also that there was disproportionate growth in low to middle-income countries ($10,000–40,000 GDP-per-capita). Overall, we find that many low-to-middle income countries have experienced high growth in ChatGPT adoption.  https://lnkd.in/dFHasid6

At UNICEF Innocenti, we are committed to making meaningful participation of children and young people the norm, not the exception. Through youth foresight workshops, consultations, and participatory research, we have seen firsthand how children and young people can shape more resilient and inclusive futures.     Our latest explainer, Why Participation Matters, brings global evidence and examples of what happens when children and young people are not only given the right to be heard, but are trusted as partners in dialogue, policy design, and decision-making.     When participation is meaningful, it strengthens young people’s agency, improves decision-making processes, and leads to better outcomes for societies as a whole.     Learn more about why participation matters in shaping systems and building better futures: https://lnkd.in/dYjxzKse     #ParticipationMatters #MeaningfulYouthEngagement #ChildRights #YouthLead 

We want to #research the #impact of a large-scale Arabic #Literacy programme in #Egypt 🇪🇬 but we can't randomize because the schools have already been selected. What can we do❓ This was a question posed to our team UNICEF Innocenti a few months ago by our colleagues in UNICEF Egypt. So heres what happened: 1️⃣st we asked more questions - what is the criteria for selection? how do students get enrolled in the programme? what are the steps for implementation? 2️⃣ We learned that students get enrolled through a large-scale assessment that was carried out for all grade 3 - 6 students in these schools. Those who scored below a certain threshold (36/60) are automatically enrolled in the programme. 3️⃣ That information gave us our strategy ⭐ as we had a running variable and a sharp cutoff. We would run a 📈 Regression Discontinuity Design (#RDD) which is a model that basically compares students who scored just above or below the cutoff. The idea being that student that scored 37 would be fairly comparable to those who scored 35 (on average), and nothing else determines whether or not they join the programme other than the score they happened to score on the day they took the baseline. 4️⃣ What was the result (see the figure below) - we were able to estimate that entering into the programme led to an impact of 17% increase for students in the programme significant at the 1 per cent level. Note that this estimate is for students around the cutoff - so for students who were already close to meeting the minimum competency. Through further analysis we find that students who started off the lowest progressed the most so this estimate is likely a lower end or conservative estimate. Note we were able to conduct this analysis thanks to our colleagues in Egypt at the NCEEE and MoETE more broadly who worked with us throughout the process. 5️⃣ We merged this analysis with a large amount of observation data throughout the implementation of the programme, and feedback from implementers - to understand not just if the programme was effective but how it was done and how it could be improved. 6️⃣ We worked with our partners in Egypt to Publish the report and launch it on International Literacy Day. Just 4 months after our initial engagement with the team. Find out more here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dAyDrm_7 🌟 Thanks to the coordination and hard work of the full team that was involved from the Government, UNICEF Egypt and UNICEF Middle East and North Africa. This is a great example of how we have learned to conduct #ImplementationResearch in #Education we work with programmes based on how they are rolled out and make our research fit for purpose with the programme, rather than the other way around. Finally, a big thanks to my great econometrics profs - Jesse Anttila-Hughes and Bruce Wydick for giving me the academic training to identify a relevant identification strategy when one presents itself!