Finland Times

 

Global Innovations for Children and Youth Summit, organised by UNICEF and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland will begin on Monday, said a press release.

 

Aimed at developing solutions benefiting the world’s most disadvantaged children, the Summit is expected to bring some of the world's top experts to Helsinki for two days.

 

The event addresses topical development challenges.

 

Although children have the right to health, protection and education, rights are not realised for mil-lions of children.

 

At the same time, development cooperation is in transition and new thinking and collaboration are needed.

 

“Helsinki is a natural site for an international innovation event. Finland is repeatedly listed as one of the world’s most innovative economies. We also strive to make increasing use of innovations to ac-celerate development, as part of Finland’s development cooperation. Partnerships play a key role in this,” said Lenita Toivakka, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, who will also speak at the Summit.

 

This Summit gathers 500 accomplished leaders representing the business community, donors, uni-versities, governments, agencies and organisations to Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, sad the release.

 

The themes include the future of jobs, refugees, access to information, learning, emergencies, re-newable energy, and creativity and play.

 

The speakers at the Summit include, among others, Caspar Aarlit Jensen of LEGO Foundation, Magnus Magnusson of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Pål Brekke of Norwegian Space Centre, Peter Vesterbacka of Rovio Entertainment, creative and technology sectors media pioneer and founder of NA3M Prince Fahad Al Saud, Kate Courteau of Y Combinator nonprofits, Kamran Elahian of Global Catalyst Partners, Rui Ma of 500 Startups, Yoka Brandt, Deputy Executive Di-rector of UNICEF, and Christopher Fabian, Co-lead at UNICEF Innovation Unit.

 

“At this event we want to challenge key players in different fields to discover hidden opportunities for new kinds of partnerships. Through innovative cooperation we can accelerate development for the benefit of the world’s most disadvantaged children,” says Marja-Riitta Ketola, Executive Direc-tor of UNICEF, Finland.

 

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Finnish National Committee for UNICEF are working together to develop partnerships and development cooperation.  

 

The Start Up to Scale Up Summit participants will also obtain practical experience of an important Finnish innovation. A Finnish school lunch will be served at Finlandia Hall.

 

The innovation event is organised by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and UNICEF in cooperation with the startup and technology conference Slush, said the release.