Enabling innovation and experimentation through UNHCR’s Digital Innovation Fund

Published June 2023

To stimulate innovative approaches to digital technologies, UNHCR’s Digital Innovation Fund provides UNHCR colleagues with the support they need to deliver forward-thinking initiatives on digital inclusion, digital protection, and digital services.

The Fund aims to act as an accelerator to enable UNHCR operations to pilot innovative digital tools and services, as part of the organization’s Digital Transformation Strategy. It builds on previous rounds of what was formerly known as the Digital Inclusion Fund.

Among the projects most recently endorsed by the Fund are digital skills mentorship to boost refugees’ access to online employment in Malawi; an online registry to match displaced Venezuelans in Peru with job opportunities; and, in Hungary, a community-based vetting system to identify malicious online content, building refugees’ skills to reduce their exposure to online risks. These initiatives, and others, are ensuring displaced and host communities can benefit from our increasingly connected world.

Through the Fund, managed by UNHCR’s Innovation Service, selected teams are provided with funding as well as programmatic and technical support. The latest application round closed in June 2023.

Read more on the Digital Innovation Fund.