UNICEF partners with frog design

In a recently held announcement, href="http://www.ciol.com/Developer/Enterprise-Tools/News-Reports/frog-design-Aricent-launch-business-unit/140920/0/">frog
design has collaborated with href="http://www.ciol.com/News/News/News-Reports/Unicef-launches-online-campaign-for-kids/142435/0/">UNICEF
as the organization's lead
design and innovation partner on Project Mwana, a major mHealth
initiative to improve maternal and infant health and welfare in
peri-urban Malawi and rural Zambia. The immediate goal of the project
is to leverage mobile technologies in innovative ways to
significantly increase mothers' visits to clinics for ante and
postnatal care by January 2012.

Mobile technology is particularly
important as a communications vehicle in Malawi and Zambia, as there
is little to no other existing infrastructure with which to reach
large volumes of the population. Working closely with UNICEF's
Innovation Team, frog will donate its services pro-bono to develop
appropriate and sustainable mobile systems that will be able to
communicate critical information on clinic locations, availability of
services, delivery of results, the importance of visiting clinics and
more, to the people who need this information most. “UNICEF and frog
share a common
vision for the powerful role that mobile technologies can play in
creating efficiencies around delivering life-saving health services
for mothers and their children,” said Erica Kochi, Communication
Specialist, UNICEF. “We are proud to partner with frog and believe
our collaboration can have an immediate and meaningful impact on
improving maternal and newborn health,” added Kochi.

Supporting this partnership, frog
together with its parent company Aricent, also announced the launch
of 'Mobile Mandate,' a multi-year investment to tap into the power of
mobile technology for social innovation projects in areas such as
health, education, energy, and economic well-being. Bringing together
deep experience in mobile innovation and design for social good,
Mobile Mandate will enable frog and Aricent to connect
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), designers, technology
companies, and social entrepreneurs in the field, building scalable
collaboration models that create high-impact solutions together with
network operators, device manufacturers, and application developers.
Mobile Mandate will combine frog and
Aricent's ongoing social innovation programs that center on mobile
technologies including Project Masiluleke, a groundbreaking effort to
tackle the HIV epidemic in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa that has
reached over 800 million people. In addition to frog's partnership
with UNICEF, further programs include frog's collaboration with
Movirtu, an award-winning for-profit social enterprise that has
developed innovative products to help mobile operators service those
living below the poverty line in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Mobile Mandate will also support a design research project led by
frog Executive Creative Director Jan Chipchase documenting the impact
of M-Paisa mobile money services in Afghanistan. “Social impact is
ingrained in our
DNA, and the desire to improve the world by humanizing technology has
been one of the consistent drivers of frog's success over the past
four decades,” said Doreen Lorenzo, President of frog design and
EVP and GM of Aricent. “Mobile Mandate reinforces our commitment to
social innovation and underscores our belief in the ability of mobile
technology and thoughtful design to tackle some of the world's
greatest challenges,” he further said.

“I can think of no better use of
Aricent's deep expertise in bringing innovative mobile technologies
to market than the mission of Mobile Mandate,” said Sudip Nandy,
CEO, Aricent. “In addition to our own considerable abilities, we
plan on tapping in to the knowledge of our global customer base, as
this is a goal that deserves the attention of our entire industry,”
he added. Additional elements of the platform include support for
micro-programs that give frog and Aricent employees the opportunity
to contribute in-kind services to local NGOs or collaborations with
individual social entrepreneurs, philanthropists and small start-ups.
To guide all commitments and ensure the
effective measurement of impact, Mobile Mandate will be overseen by a
Board of Advisors that will include frog and Aricent executives as
well as clients and industry experts. Aricent and frog will also
publish a Mobile Mandate annual report that documents the progress
and results of all programs. Additionally, the report will feature
related third-party initiatives and aggregate insights derived from
all of these collaborations, which may serve as a reference point for
best practices in social innovation.