In January 2020, the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs launched the Innovation Cell, an interdisciplinary team dedicated to helping the Department and its field presences to understand and explore, pilot, and scale new technologies, tools, and practices in conflict prevention, mediation and peacebuilding. Responding to the Secretary-General’s call on the UN system to accelerate its uptake of innovative methods, the Innovation Cell catalyses innovation in peace and security, while providing a forum for colleagues at UNHQ and in the field to engage collaboratively in human-centred design and problem-solving.
The Cell is part of the UN’s Innovation Network (UNIN) and works to galvanize an ecosystem of technology, civil society, and academic partners outside the UN system on peace and security use cases, thereby leveraging innovation for the shared goal of peace.
Key Documents
- DPPA Innovation Cell Summary Document, 2020
- DPPA Innovation Cell Vision Document, April 2020
- Innovation in the DPPA Multi-Year Appeal, p.40 (2020-2022)
Guides & Checklists
- Innovation Research Guide (DPPA Innovation Cell and Dag Hammarskjöld Library)
- E-Analytics Guide (DPPA, UN Global Pulse and UNU Institute on Computing and Society)
- Social Media Analysis (DPPA)
Articles
- The Politics of Oil and Peacemaking (Jan 2020)
- Getting to Grips with New Tech in Prevention and Peacemaking (Nov 2019)
- More than Pretty Pictures: Harnessing the Full Potential of Data Visualization (May 2019)
- AI & Global Governance: Robots Will Not Only Wage Future Wars but also Future Peace (April 2019)
Contact
Reach out to us at DPPA-Innovation@un.org for questions, comments and ideas.
Follow us at https://medium.com/futuring-peace for innovation-related think pieces and approaches.