UN | TechChange | The Institute for Technology and Social Change

3D printers make creating new prosthetic limbs look easy. Smart systems enable farmers to perfectly plant, fertilize, water and harvest their fields. Innovative analytical tools allow governments, NGOs, and businesses to see trends like never before, and cloud computing technologies allow the terabytes of information created daily to be shared from partner to partner across the globe. Worldwide, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) increases output and productivity.

If utilized effectively, these technologies will build the capacity necessary to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2016-2030, lifting millions out of extreme poverty as we move toward a healthier, brighter, global future. The SDGs expand upon the foundation laid by the 2000-2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by taking a more holistic approach to development issues and approaching economic, social, and environmental development as pieces of the same puzzle.

The SDG ICT Playbook guides organizations in the development sector as they leverage the power of ICT to achieve these goals, providing the context for:

Governments to build new, innovative, and sustainable ways to connect their populations to technology, thus enabling improved connection with their citizens, making processes more transparent, democratic and efficient, and improving the accessibility of government services.

NGOs to utilize this new suite of tools to conduct better research, plan more effective initiatives, and analyze their impact.

Entrepreneurs to enter into emerging markets with innovative products in an efficient, cost-effective manner that supports sustainable development.

In our work toward the SDGs, all actors should support policies, within organizations and on a national and international level, that make technology more accessible to the public.

We must create cross-sector partnerships to build the infrastructure that makes ICT possible and use those partnerships to enhance the efficacy of ICT solutions. From businesses, to governments, to organizations focused on agriculture, health, education, WASH & power, disaster relief, and environmental protection, we all stand to gain from it wouthe increased use and availability of ICT.

Acknowledging that organizations within the ICT field are situated to lead the charge on technology’s accessibility, the SDG ICT Playbook was spearheaded by a partnership between NetHope, Catholic Relief Services, Intel, Microsoft, CDW, and TechChange. While we all occupy a diverse array of organizations, we believe that our institutional differences are what give us, as a group, the holistic view that technology needs to be made accessible from a variety of perspectives, in order for it to be accessed by a variety of potential users.

Check out NetHope’s press release and blog post about the playbook.

TechChange Program Coordinator Matthew Heck explains technical aspects of Google Maps Engine to UN Summer Academy Director, Patrick van Weerelt (Photo: S5R3 / Simon Ruf).

In June 2014, TechChange Founder & CEO Nick Martin and Program Coordinator Matthew Heck conducted a training at the 2014 United Nations Summer Academy at the UN headquarters in New York City. 45 participants from across the UN system based in 25 different countries joined Nick, Matt, and TechChange Mobiles for International Development alumnus and guest expert, Arjen Swank of Text to Change in a hands-on workshop on “How to use innovation and technology for development”.

In the session, participants learned about and experimented with online tools for development including CommCare, Google Maps Engine, Magpi, Open Data Kit, and OpenStreetMap, Text to Change, TextIt, and more.

Here are some highlights from the workshop:

Nick Martin meets the participants of the 2014 UN Summer Academy and gives a quick introduction about TechChange and ICT4D.

TechChange TC105 alumnus Arjen Swank leads a workshop on TTC for the participants (Photo: S5R3 / Simon Ruf).

Check out Arjen’s latest blog post on the training and “Why basic mobile technology is still powerful” here and the UN’s summary of the event here.

In smaller break-out groups, Arjen Swank demos how Text to Change can be used via tablet (Photo: S5R3 / Simon Ruf).

UN Summer Academy participants experiment with OpenStreetMap (Photo: S5R3 / Simon Ruf).

If your organization is interested in training with TechChange online or in-person on technology for social change, please contact us at info [at] techchange [dot] org.

We’re excited, honored, and humbled to be featured in Fast Company as one of the “best learning resources for aspiring social entrepreneurs”, with recognition for the “hybrid” online/offline learning category!

Here are some highlights from the article:

“A notable resource specific to [hybrid learning models] is TechChange, which has held hundreds of in-person small-group workshops, combined with video-based and interactive delivery designed with some game mechanics, simulations-based group projects, and live video chat with instructors. These cover topics such as “mobiles for international development,” and “intrapreneurship–Innovating from within.” [Note: there’s still time for you to enroll!]

“Their open courses draw an international audience of participants, interested in social media and social change. They also create custom courses in partnership with organizations such as the United Nations, World Bank, USAID, UNICEF, Red Cross, US State Department, training student leaders in Pakistan, civil society leaders in Sudan, or international aid workers.”

“Nick Martin, one of the founders of Techchange, saw a growing need in his field for continuing professional education. “We took dozens of online courses from all kinds of providers and found that most of them were pretty awful. So we set out to build a model that was more social, interactive, scalable, and suited to the needs of the social change community.”

See the full article on Fast Company here.

Want to change the world with socially minded and innovative ideas, but bills, student loans and lack of investment opportunities are pushing you away from entrepreneurship and towards jobs that are unfulfilling and not utilizing your education? According to Accenture, you are not alone.

A staggering 41% of college graduates within the past two years are underemployed, which means they are either in jobs that are not full-time or have nothing to do with their degree. The 2008 global financial recession changed the employment landscape, drying up credit for start-ups and diminishing confidence in large institutions. The tepid recovery makes them cautious in hiring. Yet there is a growing demand from within the large organizations for employees who help them remain competitive through new ideas and a start-up mentality. The need has increased the demand for intrapreneurs, innovators from within the company that will move it forward.

Nick Hughes is an example of a social intrapreneur in action. Hughes was a middle marketing manager for Safaricom, the largest mobile network in the East African nation of Kenya when he developed an idea that would help millions of disadvantaged people while driving the bottom line of his company. Hughes’ concept, which became M-PESA (m for mobile, “pesa” is Swahili for money) has become a wildly lucrative, socially beneficial, and intrapreneurial idea which has led Safaricom to become the banker for the poor and rural in Kenya who can not get accounts from traditional banks. As of 2013 the M-PESA service has 17 million members, providing a critical socio-economic service for Kenya’s poor and profits to Safaricom.

The idea of social intrepreneurship is becoming particularly enticing to young people who want stable careers, but care less and less about making a fortune in corporate America and more about making a difference in the world around them. Personally, intrapreneurship has been an incredibly rewarding career choice. In 2009 I lost my job, and spent a year trying to become a social entrepreneur, sleeping on couches, living unemployment check to unemployment check, and trying to launch a company that would deliver social purpose. In 2010, UNICEF picked up on one of the company’s ideas and offered me a short-term consulting opportunity to carry-out an innovative idea. Thus began my path to learning the process of becoming a strong source of new ideas and innovation for the established institution. Three years later I’ve been a part of an amazing international team, got the opportunity to travel to Rwanda, Zambia, and Brazil, and had a consistent paycheck.

Innovating from within UNICEF provided stability and opportunities that I would not have had otherwise. In 2011, from within UNICEF, I led the launch of unicef-gis, a mobile and web application for youth-led digital mapping of risks, resiliency, and vulnerability. The app was deployed successfully into countries (Brazil and Haiti) where I knew nobody and did not speak the language. Without the UNICEF network, the idea would have never come to fruition or realized the amazing social impacts.

I personally understand today’s harsh jobs reality for graduates, interns, and young professionals. The truth is that a six-figure education and degree is only enough to level the playing field, but not enough to secure you a rewarding job that allows you to be independent and pay back student loans. That’s why learning how to practice intrapreneurship in your field can become a novel employment option for those who will be entering the workplace or are already in it, looking to move up into more senior positions. These large institutions like the World Bank, United Nations, and Google are actively looking to hire these intrapreneurial individuals.

People often ask me, how do you become gainfully employed doing cool, innovative projects for a large international organization? The truth is, intrapreneurship is not something learned in the traditional classroom or from a textbook. It’s understood by trial and error, failing forward, and failing fast. These are skill sets that can be practiced and learned, and lead to rewarding and stable jobs. Interested in learning about intrapreneurship or know a student, intern or young professional that might benefit from learning about it? TechChange.org is providing a limited number of individuals the opportunity to learn about intrapreneurship from guest experts and interactive, self-paced online learning modules. Learn more:

TC108: Social Intrapreneurship – Innovation Within Institutions