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)
Tools & Guides
- 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)
- Peace and Security Data Hub (DPPA and DPPA-DPO)
- Diplomatic Pulse (DPPA and Qatar Computing Institute of Technology)
- Sparrow (DPPA and Idea Bureau)
- Kanari AI (prototype)
Articles
- Full and Equal: Achieving Meaningful Participation of Women in Peace Processes (Oct 2021)
- From Online Hate Speech to Deep Fakes: Shared Challenges and Solutions Around Elections (Oct 2021)
- What if Uncertainty is the Path to Peace? (Oct 2021)
- “We Use Technology, Not the Other Way Around” — Social Media and Political Analysis (Sep 2021)
- The “Women, Peace and Security Agenda” in Action: Photographs of Women Peacemakers and Peacebuilders from Around the World (Sep 2021)
- The Role of Business in Peace Processes: Missed Opportunities? (Sep 2021)
- Why Our Brains Are at War — And What We Can Do About It (Sep 2021)
- What We Can Learn from Behavioural Science for Peace (Jul 2021)
- How to Change the World from Space (Jul 2021)
- The United Nations is Turning to Artificial Intelligence in Search for Peace in War Zones (The Washington Post, April 2021)
- AI Helps People in War Zones Get Their Voices Heard by Leaders (Freethink, April 2021)
- Diplomacy Has Changed More Than Most Professions During the Pandemic (The Economist, April 2021)
- How Dashboards Could Destroy World Peace — And How to Prevent It (March 2021)
- What the “Lords of the Artic” Teach Us About Inclusive Peace (Feb 2021)
- What Machines Can Teach Us About How to Write Constitutions (Jan 2021)
- 2021 Impact 20: Remesh (Fortune, 2021)
- How to Spark Unlikely Conversations About Peace (Oct 2020)
- How to Draw the Future (and Re-Imagine Peace) (Sep 2020)
- Cutting-Edge Tech in the Service of Inclusive Peace in Yemen (Aug 2020)
- How to Hack Dystopia in Our Current Global Mess (Jul 2020)
- UN Tries Mass Polling to Build Peace Deals (Financial Times, Feb 2020)
- 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)
VR Experiences
Contact
Reach out to us at DPPA-Innovation@un.org for questions, comments and ideas.
Visit https://futuringpeace.org/ to learn more about the Innovation Cell’s exploratory projects.
Follow us at https://medium.com/futuring-peace and https://dppa.medium.com/ for innovation-related think pieces and approaches.
Follow @UN_Innovation to learn what UN entities are doing in the space of innovation.