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Meta & UNICEF USA’s Partnership: Strengthening Health and Safety for Children and Communities Banner

Meta & UNICEF USA’s Partnership: Strengthening Health and Safety for Children and Communities

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Meta (f.k.a. Facebook) and UNICEF are both uniquely positioned to tackle some of the most pressing challenges that face children and young people. The two joined forces in 2016 on a mission to create lasting change, leveraging UNICEF’s global reach and over 75 years of experience in emergency response and Meta’s technology, influence and resources.

Through data insights, innovative technologies, technical expertise and targeted funding, the partnership focuses on strengthening health and safety for children and communities around the world. 

Combatting misinformation and building public trust

Meta teamed up with UNICEF in 2020 to counter misinformation about vaccines and build vaccine confidence and trust. With the help of Meta, UNICEF is scaling its reach to more than 100 countries with evidence-based information to support COVID-19 vaccination efforts and routine child immunization by:

  • testing and identifying localized messages and messengers to shift attitudes, addressing specific vaccine concerns

  • training over 70 UNICEF country offices in effective digital social behavior change communication tools and tactics — including the effective use of Meta's social media product Facebook advertising 

  • amplifying COVID prevention and vaccine facts through ad credits 

In Indonesia, Pakistan and the Philippines, this work is focused on getting routine immunization services back on track amid stricter COVID-19 safety protocols. Pilot initiatives in India and the Ukraine are testing various messaging strategies.

Meta’s support has enabled UNICEF to reach over 500 million people with credible health information. In some countries, Meta's research and insights show that UNICEF campaigns can positively influence audience knowledge, attitudes and behaviors toward COVID-19 prevention and response. 

Responding to Zika

In response to the 2016 Zika outbreak in Brazil — where over 90 percent of the population use Facebook each month — Meta analyzed public conversation around Zika and worked with UNICEF Brazil to develop and launch prevention awareness ads. The campaign reached over 4 million people, and in a post-campaign survey, 82 percent of those who saw the ads reportedly took action to protect themselves against Zika.

Disaster Mapping

In June 2017, Meta began working with UNICEF on disaster mapping — generating close to real-time anonymized insights on people’s location, migration patterns and the level of danger they are in during a flood, fire or earthquake. Meta and UNICEF continue to leverage data in emergencies to reach the most people quickly with lifesaving aid. 

Meta began working with UNICEF on disaster mapping

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Connecting every school to the internet

UNICEF is on a mission to connect every school to the internet through its Giga initiative. Meta is supporting Giga by mapping the current connectivity status of 900 primary and secondary schools in 35 countries, which helps UNICEF and partners focus efforts and advocate more effectively for extended broadband and mobile access to students in need. 

Protecting and empowering children online

Meta and UNICEF have started collaborating to build safer and healthier online experiences for children and adolescents. One joint initiative aims to reach 100,000 school children in India with online safety, digital literacy and psychosocial support. Activities will include a nationwide media campaign and programs designed to: 

  • improve children’s resilience and capacity to access the digital world safely

  • increase awareness on violence against children and its impact on children, families and communities 

  • increase skills of communities and frontline workers to better prevent and respond to violence

UNICEF and Meta work together with a regional network of child protection and digital communication experts to better understand and assess safety risks for children online in the East Asia-Pacific region (APAC). In Cambodia, Meta is supporting UNICEF’s campaign on online grooming to promote healthy behavior, risky relationships assessments and reporting. 

Fundraising and capacity building

In the wake of an emergency, Meta activates fundraising tools for UNICEF and builds the capacity of specific markets to better deploy Facebook’s Charitable Giving Tools, distributing critical information to more people, faster.

In 2018, Meta helped UNICEF optimize the platform’s tools to raise over $1 million for the Yemen crisis in just nine days. 

Following the 2021 earthquake in Haiti, Meta launched its Megaphone fundraising tool on Facebook in select markets to raise money for earthquake relief efforts. The initiative generated $301,000 in public donations and a $500,000 corporate grant.

Learn more about how UNICEF and companies work together to create better futures for children.