christopher fabian

Lead UNICEF’s Digital Inclusion work, building on Giga to help countries plan, finance, procure, and operate affordable, safe digital infrastructure for children across UNICEF's mandate.

Leading the Giga initiative from the UNICEF side of our partnership. Building up our headquarters in Geneva and Technology Center in Barcelona to help connect every school in the world to the internet

Giga is a global initiative to connect every school to the Internet and every young person to information, opportunity and choice. I co-founded this and run it in partnership with ITU, the International Communications Union

Launched GIGA, an initiative to connect every school in the world as a collaboration with UNICEF and ITU, and partnerships with Prime Ministers/ Heads of State across multple countries. Supported production and followup to the Secretary-General’s work on Digital Cooperation. Grew UNICEF Venture Fund to 29M$, with investments in more than 50 open-source technology companies. Presented innovation strategy, findings, and toolkits at 2 UN Secretary-General’s Chief Executive Board meetings. Conceptualized and launched UNICEF’s Cryptocurrency Investment Fund (the first crypto-denominated vehicle in the global public sector). Launched the the Digital Public Goods Alliance (with Norway), a global platform for sourcing and scaling digital solutions for the SDGs.

Built and co-teach (usually once per year) the Design for UNICEF curriculum. It began at NYU Tisch, and we most recently taught it at Tandon. This activity is approved by UNICEF HR and is unpaid.

Created the UN Innovation Network (now more than 50 UN entities, 1400 members) and established UNICEF leadership in groups like IDIA (Rockefeller convened, 10 major funders of innovation. Established UNICEF Innovation Fund – the first vehicle of its kind in the Untied Nations. Led UNICEF’s Innovation Team work in building realtime information systems for Liberia’s response to the Ebola Crisis (2014). Led the team that launched RapidPro and U-Report (now with more than 10M active users across 40 countries) establishing UNICEF as a leader in realtime information in difficult environments.

Formally established the UNICEF Innovation Unit facilitating collaboration of key UNICEF country representatives. Scaled SMS solutions for data collection to register more than 17M children in Nigeria and connect health clinics in Malawi and Uganda to realtime information systems. Supported scaleup of birth registration in Uganda via smartphone (eventual change in birth registration rates from 25% to >80% nationally), Built 10 UNICEF Innovation Labs, as well as a framework for managing them (“Innovation Labs Cookbook”). Awarded Time Magazine “100 Most Influential People” for UNICEF’s work in technology for development.

Built UNICEF strategic innovation and institution-wide initiatives for enhancing programs with existing and new technologies; to support UNICEF Country Offices in pilot initiatives and partnerships

Secondment / Part time. Represented UNICEF in the Global Pulse initiative in the UN EOSG. Created partnership and policy among UNICEF, EOSG, G8/G20, and countries on data innovation. Created of a framework of innovations labs linking WHO, UNDP, UNICEF as well as public and private-sector partners around in-country innovation.

Founded and successfully exited premier user-content-created web portal and social media site in sub-Saharan Africa. Introduced impressions-based advertising, user-generated content, and online food ordering into multiple markets.