As the UNICEF Office of Research-Innocenti, we conduct research to inform policymaking and implementation. This project brief summarizes our work on research governance

1. PROJECT BRIEF
Research
Governance
How do we ensure quality
in research for better use
of evidence as a driver of
change for children?
©
UNICEF/UN09064/Lynch

2. Overview
UNICEF Innocenti is mandated to support research
standard setting across UNICEF’s 190 offices
worldwide. We provide support to ensure that
research is quality-assured, fit for purpose and
ethically generated. We also oversee research
knowledge management and organizational learning
initiatives so that UNICEF’s current and prior
investments in research are available and accessi-
ble. We work in partnership with other evidence
functions across UNICEF in order to foster a culture
of evidence and learning.
Approach
(1) Provision of policies, procedures, taxonomy
and guidance to ensure that UNICEF research is of
high quality, appropriated managed, and delivered
against global research priorities and evidence gaps
(2) Oversight of UNICEF’s research governance
architecture worldwide. (3) Supporting development
of research priorities including a theory of change
for research; an open access/open data policy;
and managing an institutional repository with the
Evaluation Office to record planned work, as well as
final published outputs for easy retrieval to inform
future programming (4) Provision of technical support
to UNICEF colleagues including on research design,
methods and quality assurance. (5) Fostering an
evidence culture with deep dive evidence diagnosti-
cs to support regional strategies to strengthen
evidence use to inform policy and programming
and improve knowledge management. (6) Interacti-
ve partnerships mapping directory for UNICEF
staff: ±2,000 quality-assured potential research and
evidence entities based in LMICs with thematic
expertise relevant to our Strategic Plan goal areas
and technical expertise across evidence generation,
communication and capacity-building. (7) Multi Donor
Learning Partnership for Development Effectiveness:
An informal alliance to exchange lessons and good
practices across members’ knowledge management
and organizational learning agendas in international
development (with SIDA, GiZ, FCDO, World Bank, US
AID, IDB, IFAD and WellcomeTrust).
Goal
Known for its work to save and enhance children’s
lives, UNICEF’s work is increasingly moving
upstream in the SDG era – with more emphasis
on evidence as a driver of change for children. For
UNICEF to successfully draw upon evidence to
enhance advocacy, policy and programmes, our staff
worldwide must become intelligent managers and
commissioners of research.
Project Highlights
PROJECT BRIEF
Contact Info
Kerry Albright
Chief, Research Facilitation
and Knowledge Management
kalbright@unicef.org
Multi Donor Learning Partnership
book project (2021–2022)
This inter-agency book, sponsored
by UNICEF
, aims to collate two
years of lessons, reflections, case
studies and thought leadership
on knowledge management and
organizational learning (KM/OL)
experiences across the institutio-
nal members. It will demonstrate
how investment in KM/OL enables
donor organizations to be agile
and responsive in times of global
uncertainty and will reflect on what
a future KM/OL world could look
like in the aftermath of COVID-19.
Desk review of UNICEF’s research
and evidence infrastructure and
ecosystem investments (2021–2022)
UNICEFcountryandregionaloffices
haveinvestedinsupportingtheevidence
architecture(processes)andecosystems
(people)toenhanceevidence-infor-
meddecision-makingforchildren.This
includessupportingcreationofnational
ethicsreviewboards;trainingjournalists
ontheUNConventionontheRightsof
theChild;nationalstatisticalsystems
strengthening;supportinggovernments
inchild-sensitivebudgeting;andexperi-
mentingwithchildparliaments,etc.
Basedonqualitativeresearch,lessons
identifiedinthisreview–ofwhathas
worked(andwhathasn’t)–willspotlight
themostpromisingmechanismsto
strengthenanevidenceandlearning
cultureinthecountrieswherewework.
Joint Displacement Center Digest
on Child andYouth Migration
A UNICEF Innocenti edited issue
of the UNHCR-World Bank Joint
Displacement Centre Quarterly
Digest spotlights recent data-
driven contributions to the
emerging literature on child and
youth forced displacement.These
contributions focus on mental
health risks faced by forcibly
displaced children; evidence
from existing evaluations and
assessments on ‘what works’; and
the emerging use of technological
innovations for the sourcing and
management of child migration and
displacement data.