UNICEF Climate Innovation Challenge 2026

UNICEF is launching a call for solutions from emerging markets in collaboration with India Health Fund (IHF), and the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). To maximize impact, UNICEF will foster collaboration between early-stage frontier tech ventures and help scale proven climate adaptation solutions. This dual track approach seeks to drive impact and provide long-term sustainability. 

We also invite value-aligned partners to support innovation challenges, design sprints and deliver strategic technical assistance to build greater equity and trust across technological solutions. 

• Table of Content
• About United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF)
• UNICEF Climate Innovation Challenge
• Aim and Benefits of UNICEF Climate Innovation Challenge
• Requirements for UNICEF Climate Innovation Challenge Qualification
• Application Deadline
• How to Apply

UNICEF Climate Innovation Challenge

Aim and Benefits of UNICEF Climate Innovation Challenge

Through this challenge, we seek to:  

• conduct a market mapping of child-centric climate innovators operating across emerging markets
• create capacity by offering mentorship and technical assistance from UNICEF Venture Fund experts to selected start-ups, enhancing their investment readiness and potential for future funding. This will comprise:
• 10 hours of technical mentoring consisting of open source, business development, frontier technology, software development and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) mentorship
• additional support to understand and navigate the UNICEF Venture Fund sourcing and selection process
• highlight investable solutions that demonstrate public good and market opportunity

The UNICEF Venture Fund is particularly seeking solutions that:      

• address challenges to accelerate results for children
• are optimized for low-resource environments (e.g., low connectivity or limited mobile access)
• focus on reducing, rather than widening, inequalities, delivering results for diverse users and communities
• can deliver in multiple languages, including local and less used languages 

Requirements for UNICEF Climate Innovation Challenge Qualification

Companies need to fulfil the following mandatory selection criteria to be considered:

• be registered as a private for-profit company
• be registered in a UNICEF programme country?(See the list of eligible countries here)
• have a working prototype or minimum viable product of the proposed solution, ideally, showing promising results
• be open source or willing to be open source
• have the potential to positively impact the lives of the most vulnerable children
• generate publicly exposed real-time data that is measurable 

Application Deadline

How to Apply

For more details, visit UNICEF Climate Innovation Challenge webpage