Vision

U-Report is a mobile empowerment programme that

connects young people all over the world to information
that will change their lives and influence decisions.
What is U-Report

A powerful real-time data collection and

communication platform

• For the people: owned & operated by NGOs &

UNICEF. Partner with government
• Free to the U-Reporter
• Anonymous
• Accessed through SMS, Facebook Messenger
& Viber
• Accountable & Transparent: www.ureport.in
• Not UNICEF branded
UNICEFINNOVATION @unicefinnovate
How U-Report works

 U-Reporters opt-in and register answer to weekly polls.

 Data is displayed in real time in public websites
 Users can also received one-on-one advice in private via U-
Partners
 Users are mapped by location, gender and age, and can be
addressed by any of the fields at any time.
 U-Report is run by a committee of partners UNICEFINNOVATION
 How is U-Report being used globally?

Over 8.5 million users in 65

countries

• Measure Awareness - campaigns and attitudes

• Research
• Reducing the distance between constituents and
government
• Disaster Preparedness
• Behavior Change
• Counseling
• Understanding Demand
• Responding and Providing services
• Empowerment
Four Modes of Engagement following Registration

WEEKLY POLLS LIVE CHATS U-REPORT BOTS MOBILIZING YOUNG PEOPLE

Template U-Partners Rapid Pro Connecting young people

Dashboard / website Partner case management Machine automated physically to take an Action
White label: CasePro responses
 U-REPORT

SCALE TO DATE

The U-Report mobile messaging

platform is used by over 8.5
2019 million youth in 65 countries to:

● Change local and national

2018 policy
● Give feedback on UNICEF
programmes
● Enhance accountability
7,300,000 through citizen feedback
6,300,000
● Share life-saving
information

2015 Available on WhatsApp, SMS,

2011 Messenger, Telegram and Viber.
300,000 1,000,000
2011 2015 2018 2019
RapidPro & U-Report
How we build flows
Defining U-Report: 3 prerequisites:
Child/Youth/Community U-Report ✔

Health Worker RapidPro

Beneficiary

Teacher RapidPro

Frontline worker RapidPro

Government RapidPro

Data Owner

UNICEF U-Report ✔

Multi U-Report ✔
Issue

Single RapidPro

*U-Report must have one non-government or youth partner also involved and is anonymous.
 Addressable audience

• RapidPro: manages users.

• Group people with the information 1
they provide:
• Demographics
• Jobs
2
• Issues
• Age, gender

• Target and
analyse by groups
Platform is used today to provide SRH, MHM, HIV/AIDS, Marburg
and Malaria advice in various countries

U-Reporter: What
are the Sexual
Transmission
Diseases?
Counselor: Hello friend,
there are several sexual
transmission diseases and
Name of the
among them there are syphilis,
counselor. gonorrhea, trichomoniasis,
genital herpes, candidiasis,
hepatitis B, non-gonococcal
urethritisTime
and others.
the Visit a
health centermessage
or SAAJ for more
information.
lasted in the
inbox before
being replied.
U-Report Process: Main Steps

Concept: Office of Innovation & CO

• Read Key Principles Document
• CO Write concept note, budget, select vendor.
• U-Report team review and support concept note. CO finalises

Deploy: ICTRO & CO

• GIC Create RapidPro Workspace & CO learn basic functions
• If using SMS acquire short code locally
• Agree rates with Mobile Network Operators and/or Aggregator
• Raise RapidPro contract with vendor against global LTA: GIC will provide ToR
• Connect digital channels selected (e.g Facebook) to RapidPro
• Complete Brand Toolkit & Website Google form – HQ make the logo
• Hire as required: GIC can provide ToRs as needed

Launch: CO + Office of Innovation

• Work towards the 3 goals: Scale, Engage, Change
• GIC provide comms guidance
• Join U-Report community for sharing, learning and evolving
• Become a member of the google group & join monthly peer community call
Resources:
www.rapidpro.io has many learning materials
www.ureport.in acts as a portal to country sites for content examples
Templates
 U-Report Goals

POSITIVE
SCALE ENGAGE
CHANGE

UNICEFINNOVATION @unicefinnovate
SCALE
 Driving Scale

Paid Media Partnerships Owned Earned

• Radio Ads • Youth Orgs • UNICEF websites • Word of Mouth

• Facebook media • NGOs • UNICEF Facebook • Viral Video
pages
• Content Shows • UN Agencies • Utilizing Talent
• Other
• Events opportunities: • Personal
e.g LINE Channel networks

Programme Integration!
The U-Report movement in Côte
d’Ivoire is lead by a dynamic team
of 5 talented and dynamic young
people. A movement for and by
young people!
+1,000,000 U-Reporters From all regions in Côte
d’Ivoire

1st francophone 2nd worldwide

 U-Report Goals

ENGAGE

UNICEFINNOVATION @unicefinnovate
Best Practices

• Young People write the questions. U-Reporters can submit questions.

• Always provide feedback

• Provide one-on-one access to services and information about U-Report

• Let people know how their data is being used and amplify on social channels

• Let people know how to opt out

• Solicit user feedback regular: did our support help, have you put in practice
any advice we gave you, what are we missing?

• Kids are smart. Don’t kid a kidder: If you couldn’t use the data be honest, if
you were successful make sure you tell people what they contributed too!
Disaster Preparedness : Hurricane Irma, Jose and
Maria

Seven volunteers
answered 8000 life-
saving questions
during
Hurricane Irma in a
matter of days

"In my 15 years this is the first hurricane I’ve ever been through, and it really scared me. I don’t
know how to tell you that the information you sent me was some of the best information I got, and I
shared it with my whole family by telephone.” - a 15-year-old U-Reporter in the Dominican Republic.
Improving Mental health services in Thailand

• 53% of U-Reporters reported feeling most

stressed from studying

• Young people cope with stress by listening

to music or consulting friends.

• 50% reported feeling depressed in the past

2 weeks. 1 in 4 have attempted to commit
  suicide.

• 87% have never used a mental health

service.

• Department of Mental Health hotline 1323 shared with U-Reporters

• Results shared with Path2Health Foundation and the Department of

Mental Health to support initiatives to improve youth-friendly mental
health services.

• Advocating for a policy change to allow young people below the age of 18
to seek mental health services without parental consent
Bucharest EU Children’s Declaration
• During Romania’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the Ministry of Labour and Social
Justice Minister for European Affairs, and UNICEF in Romania joined forces to promote children’s right to
participation as a priority.
• Bucharest EU Children’s Declaration was developed through face-to-face meetings as well and through online
consultations using U-Report as well as the ongoing UNICEF-EuroChild Survey on ‘Europe Kids Want’.
• Over 200 participants - 60 children across the European Union and dozens of child rights experts, European high-level
officials and civil society representatives attended the “Children's Participation in Decision-Making and Policy-
Making at European Union level” international conference in Bucharest on 6-7 May and adopted the
“Bucharest EU Children’s Declaration”  

The “Bucharest EU Children’s Declaration”, a one

of a kind document at the global level, calls on
European institutions and member states to
establish formal structures and mechanisms that
will promote children's right to participation –
“The present generation of children, who has
already demonstrated its capacity of analyzing
and taking action on the pressing issues of today”
(Fridays for future, the #NeverAgain March, results
of Europe We Want survey and the popularity of
U-Report).
U-Report in Emergency Response

 
U-Report 24x7 is the first platform dedicated
solely for use in UNICEF’s emergency response

• Empower children, youth and communities in North East

Nigeria on emergency preparedness, response and
transition
• Increase access to life-saving, behavior focused,
information to affected populations
• Establish  anonymous grievance and reporting messaging
hotlines in order to fulfill obligations to be accountable to
the people affected, including information on SEA
• Reach 150,000 people affected in 3 states (Borno,
Adamawa, Yobe)
• Design and disseminate knowledge and behavior related
messages in 3 focus states

U-Report 24X7 in 3 states of North-East Nigeria since launching in 2018

Activating the Model for U-Report in Humanitarian Action
in North-East Nigeria

Complimenting information received from offline tools and

interactions  such as Focus Group Discussions (FDGs),
suggestion boxes via weekly U-Report polls

Providing life-saving information to host and IDP communities

via U-Report information centers (Bots)  

Supporting partners better respond to the feedback on service

delivery from affected communities (i.e. IDPs in camps) by
collating U-Report complaints  and referring that information to
partners through Live chats / case management messages

Ensuring that U-Reporters are kept engaged by sharing back

poll results
Sierra Leone - Understanding people’s needs
in immediate aftermath

Following August Floods & landslides.

• Polls targeted to Freetown only

• Over 10,000 U-Reporters in affected areas.
• Gender analysis showed men and women
had the same concerns
• U-Reporters stayed in touch with UNICEF
and our partners constantly throughout
emergency
• Data included in SitReps
• Tool and data made accessible to clusters.
https://sierraleone.ureport.in/poll/2215/
 Responding to the concerns of the affected population

Source: https://sierraleone.ureport.in/poll/2191/ Source: https://sierraleone.ureport.in/poll/2200/

Decrease in the concern level from communities

shows progress in the area of water.
Providing Counseling in Mozambique

• Every day U-Report Mozambique team along work with it’s partner
Youth Association Coalizão and volunteers to responds to
hundreds of text messages.

• Provides information on a variety of issues, such as HIV/AIDS

prevention, sexual and reproductive health, early marriage or
violence against children

• Messages are categorized in labels and counselors pick a label

and respond to messages which fall within that particular label

• Incentives are given to counselors who respond to a monthly goal of

1,500 messages answered or surpasses it.

More than 130,000

U-Reporters counseled
300,000 messages
and referred to health
providers in 4 replied 2018
provinces in 2018
POSITIVE
CHANGE
Real-time data enables Real-time decision making

• U-Reporters asked if they’d heard about vaccination campaign and if so

where.

• Results shared with Ministry of Health.

• Campaign Optimised: Vaccinations increased 25% in month two.

U-Report supporting Protection Team’s work in El Salvador:
Early Child Marriage

12 July 2017: Poll sent to U-Reporters

70% of U-Reporters knew an underage girl who

was married

The voice of these youth used as part of

UNICEF, UNFPA, UN Women’s advocacy at the
Legislative Assembly

16 August 2017: Family Code banned child

marriage in El Salvador
U-Report Information Centre for Periods – Chutki!
• Chutki is an animated character created as a response to a 2017 Pakistan
poll on menstrual hygiene, revealing limited knowledge on
menstruation amongst young girls.

• Feedback from U-Reporters through polls and U-Partners live chats

signified to UNICEF WASH colleagues that more had to be done enable
young people to access critical information.

• Chutki bot was created to help adolescent girl U-Reporters understand

what is happening to their bodies when they have their period.

• Results to date: Answered 100,000 puberty-related questions

across 10 Country U-Report platforms. Currently being scaled and
piloted in Indonesia, Cote d’Ivoire , Bangladesh, Ghana, Burkina Faso
and Nigeria. Over 100,000 young people have accessed the bot.
U-Reporters assisting communities during Floods
in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
In Côte d’Ivoire, U-Report is a movement of
young people taking actions for positive
change in their community
 
In a moment of emergency, U-Report served
as a virtual helping friend offering useful and
life-saving information to keep our U-
Reporters and their family safe.
 
Following the flooding disaster that hit Abidjan
in June 2018, U-Reporters went out on the
streets and assisted the affected families.

They helped them clean up and save their

remaining belongings, cleaned the clogged
drains and sensitized people around them to
do the same.
 End User Monitoring

We want to improve this kit, give us

Translation:

your feedback. Type ‘KIT’ and send a free

UNICEFINNOVATION
SMS to 8623 @unicefinnovate
Latin America – Strengthening laws on physical punishment

• The Office of Special Representative of the UNSG on

violence against children and the Executive
Secretariat of Mexican government took feedback
from young people in Latin America on Physical
punishment.

• In four of the five polls the majority of U-Reporters

indicated that it is not right for an adult to beat or
swear at adolescents. Girls suffered bad treatment
from adults as compared to boys.

• U-Reporters reported that the police did not treat

children and young people well, while teachers and
doctors gave good treatment.

As a result of the poll declaration on physical punishment was signed in where the
governments agreed to strengthen physical punishment laws for young people and
invest in training for teachers, law personnel, parents and wider community.
 C4D: Response to Cholera outbreak – Zimbabwe

• The government, UNICEF and partners

initiated various awareness campaigns to keep
the public on high alert.

• U-Report was used to create awareness and

enhance knowledge levels on the disease,
signs and symptoms, precaution measures and
steps to take upon suspecting signs of the
disease.

• A U-Report Cholera tutor or Cholera

Bot was developed with C4D task team.
“Tagline was SMS “cholera” to 33500 to know
more”

 86,000 have used it since January

 90% Found it useful
 Sole source of information for 44%
Closing the Dengue Communication Gap in Jamaica

• By sending a single word ‘DENGUE’ on Facebook or

SMS, young people in Jamaica were informed about
the illness.

• U-Report poll quickly identified a gap in knowledge,

with 47 % U-Reporters admitting that they did not
know the symptoms of dengue. This was both
surprising and startling, but many shared their
suggestions to help the Ministry.

• With an obvious gap in knowledge to be filled,

Jamaica created a U-Report bot/ Dengue Information
Centre whereby U-Reporters could 
message the word DENGUE to receive information
about A. Prevention, B. Symptoms or C. Treatment.

“If someone had asked me six months ago about the fastest way to reach young people in
Jamaica, I would probably have said Instagram. If you asked me today, I would likely say the
UNICEF U-Report, albeit with the caveat that it depends on your needs” –
Petre Williams-Raynor, Manager of Public Relations and Communications at Ministry of
Health
 On the Move : Reaching 20% of the total unaccompanied
refugee minors in the Sicily, Italy

• U-Report On the move is a digital empowerment programme

that connects young refugees and migrants in Italy.

• UNICEF One Response team and Italian Government National

Ombudsperson work together through joint actions to support
migrant and refugee adolescents in Italy, particularly in relation
to the empowerment, social inclusion and promotion of rights of
Unaccompanied minor.

• Local and national governments in Italy used U-Report On The

Move to monitor and act on opinions for their policy decisions
According to U-Report poll of
• 6 languages are used on the platform children on the move

• 70% of young refugees say they are more confident to speak

out through U-Report

• U-Report on the move expanding to Latin America, Brazil,

Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Uganda, Iraq and Jordan
And Kader, U-Reporter also met the Pope

Global Compact on Migration was adopted by 152 countries

where UNICEF will work with governments in countries of origin,
transit and destination to prioritize the best interests of children
in the development and application of migration policies and
procedures, to keep families together, to end immigration
detention of children and families, and to adhere to the principle
of non-refoulment.

“We need young men like you to work on human rights

issues. I am fully available to support all your actions.
Now you can count on me"

Pope Francis
Addressing a U-Reporter On the Move
 African Youth Voices @ African Union-European Union
(AU-EU) Summit 2017

• The EU and UNICEF have a long standing collaboration in promoting education for children and
leveraging policies supporting children’s and young people’s issues, in particular for the most
vulnerable children and adolescents.

• 128,000 U-Reporters from four countries – Central African Republic, Chad, Nigeria and

Uganda – amplified their voices 

• 62% either experienced or knew people who had experienced disruption to their education from
conflict in the past year; 49% experienced this through schools being shut or damaged.

• 51% U-Reporters prioritized education as most important in times of conflict for promoting peace;
while 96% U-Reporters believed technology could support their education. The results of this survey
brought a strong message from the youth to the AU-EU Summit in Abidjan. 

“Thanks to UNICEF for relentless commitment to education. Through U-Report African children

have an opportunity to make their voices heard and share their dreams about education 
#AfricanYouthVoices ” - Mr. Christos Stylianides- European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid
and Crisis Management .
Uganda - Over 200,000 HIV+ mothers & communities made
aware about Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding awareness sent messages to over

200,000 communities and HIV+ mothers in
collaboration with the Ministry of Health.

U-Reporters were informed that breast milk is

the best for babies even when the mother is
HIV+ and that a baby should be fed the first 6
months.

U-Report has been used for advocacy for

antenatal care (ANC).
• Data used to assess why expectant mothers
do not go for ANC;
• Assessing services of health workers
• Encouraging mothers to visit ANC
 Automated Helpline of the 21st Century

• Pakistan: Action Aid

& UNICEF answer
600 WASH questions
in a day

• LACR: 2,400 people

access Zika knowledge

• Zimbabwe: Forwards
maintenance
messages to workers

UNICEFINNOVATION @unicefinnovate
U-Report Global Evaluation 2018
U-REPORT

UNICEF Global Evaluation:

• Commissioned by the United

Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
Global Evaluation Office

• Engaged Deloitte LLP to examine

innovation across the spectrum of
innovation types, country contexts,
and internal (UNICEF) and
external (partner) actors.
Key findings
U-REPORT

• U-Report is a powerful tool that allows UNICEF and

partners to directly achieve its strategic priorities, mission,
and mandate, demonstrating measurable outcomes for
UNICEF programming and youth beneficiaries.

• Global Innovation center continues to play an

instrumental role in the achievement of scale and
outcomes, through its role in supporting COs and providing Sustainability
U-Report is a of
powerful
the tooltool
Role of GIC instrumental
leadership for global product management and
coordination.

• Heightened efforts and resources dedicated towards

analyzing U-Report data has been an important element
that has contributed to the financial and non-
financial sustainability of the tool, including enabling
the tool to scale more rapidly and at a lower cost;
Change Summary

– It takes “users” of data to create meaningful participation

– U-Report can generate data to solve problems, but people
solve problems, not the existence of data itself
What are waiting for?
Annex
A Safe Space to Express yourself

38% of people in Ukraine told nobody they were being bullied, until they told us.

89% think bullying is a problem in Ukraine. 76% encountered bullying because of the way
they look, 38% told no one. 56% think that we should train teachers to end bullying.

UNICEF is now running an anti-bullying campaign in schools, including teachers training.

These results were also presented to Ombudsman for Child Rights.

 Laser targeting resource mobilization

Vaccination: Do you think polio vaccine is safe?

Education & Child Protection: Sex4Grades
Reaching Parents for ECD

• Target Parents with young

children

• Map content across the stages

of development

• Understand community
attitudes to ECD

• Provide community generated

tips & advice