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Fit for the future

Young people are stepping up every day to take us into the years to come — they are our future.

Fit4Future is here to set those young voices up for success, to allow them to represent themselves and create the changes in the world around them they want to see, especially in low and middle income countries.

By investing in the technology and skills they need and involving them in every stage of city development, we’re helping to prepare the next generation to lead us to a brighter tomorrow.

Navigate the map to explore the projects we are supporting as part of the Fit4Future initiative. These have been divided into three categories.

  • Building skills fit for the future
  • Technological solutions to health challenges
  • Young action for thriving cities
Technological solutions to health challenges

Breaking the cycle - tech for increased awareness on menstruation

Senegal
It4life
Let's break the cycle - scaling a sensitisation program on menstruation with digital innovation

Taboo, a lack of information and minimal resources make sexual and reproductive health very difficult for many women and girls in West Africa. We are collaborating on It4life’s programme, designed to use the best digital channels to give women easy access to reliable information — so they can make their own choices.

Building skills fit for the future

Building the future workforce ecosystem

Bogotá
Fundación Corona
4IR Youth Workforce Marketplace for Bogotá

The fourth industrial revolution is changing the world of work. This project by Fundación Corona intends to build a 4IR workforce ecosystem by bringing together key stakeholders into a collaborative approach to increase training and employment opportunities for youth — at scale.

Young action for thriving cities

Citizen portal for safer roads

Vietnam
AIP Foundation
AI&Me: Empowering youth for safer roads

Road accidents disproportionately affect young people in Vietnam. Powered by feedback and issues raised by young people, the project is creating an app that uses big data to empower and involve young people in flagging road safety issues near them, and support governments in taking appropriate actions for safer cities

Building skills fit for the future

Creating (the next generation of) African innovators in tech

Tanzania, Rwanda, DRC
OpenMap Development Tanzania, Inc
Open Skies Fellows: African Tech for African Data

At present, much of the technology in Africa comes from outside sources. Open Skies Fellow aims to change that by empowering a cohort of young African people with technical knowledge and information, and creating hubs for innovation within local communities.

Watch a video about the project here.

Young action for thriving cities

Creating climate friendly urban agriculture

Colombia
Universidad Ean
Food System Resilience Lab: Strengthening sustainability education and innovation in Colombia through the co-creation of solutions for urban food risk mitigation

Urban agriculture is placing a great strain on the environment, particularly when it comes to climate change. The Food System Resilience Lab is a new, systemic learning approach to the problems of urban agriculture and food production — designed to digitally involve, educate and build skills for young people and workers on the importance of sustainable development.

Young action for thriving cities

Creating online spaces for change

Indonesia
BASAbali
Engaging Youth, Advancing Technology and Changing Culture with a Community-Developed Wiki for Sustained Urban Wellbeing and Livability"

While young people in Indonesia tend to use the internet for personal communications and entertainment, the resource is not being used as much for education. BASAbali are creating an online platform for young people to share and collaborate for advocacy, get involved and informed about civic discussion, and provide youth with the tools to take action.

Building skills fit for the future

Equipping and empowering students to be fit for the future

Ghana
DreamOval Foundation
Science and Tech Explorer Prize

By giving Ghanain students the opportunity to pitch digital solutions to issues in their local area in a competition, the project’s objective is to equip and empower students to make informed choices about their future careers, with a focus on building their skills in STEM, ICT, entrepreneurship and practical problem-solving.

Building skills fit for the future

Fly for the future - capacity building to leverage tech

Tanzania, Senegal, Ghana, Morocco, India, Indonesia, Ecuador
Fly for the Future
WeRobotics

Tech for good projects lack local, young voices. WeRobotics are helping to remedy that by giving young people access to drones and AI to tackle local challenges, with a long-term goal of ensuring diversity and inclusivity in tech projects and ultimately the wider tech industry.

Young action for thriving cities

Improving mental health through arts, applied gaming and AI

Colombia
International Center for Education and Human Development (CINDE)
Empowering Colombian adolescents and youths in Soacha and Pereira to take charge of their emotional and mental wellbeing

By listening and co-creating with young people using big data, AI and applied gaming, the project will generate knowledge and tools for young people to take control of their emotional resilience and mental health through art, writing and CBT exercises.

Young action for thriving cities

Influencing urban policy and empowering young people

India
Safetipin
Cities for You(th): Digital tools to enable youth leadership for urban well-being

Working directly with young people, the programme will develop gender- and youth-responsive city indicators and participatory digital tools to generate data, map infrastructure and services and influence urban policy frameworks — all whilst empowering young people in cities to collect data and address unequal social norms.

Technological solutions to health challenges

Leveraging social media to end violence against women

Jakarta
Perkumpulan Lintas Feminis
Cyber-based intervention to combat gender-based violence among Indonesian youth

With half of Indonesian young people experiencing sexual harassment/violence before the age of 16, there is clear need for intervention. The project will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of services for survivors of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and those who need them most through developing digital tools and leveraging social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Technological solutions to health challenges

Tackling malnutrition through tech

Indonesia
Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN)
Food Investigator Game

Created together by young people and game developers, this app is being designed to gamify better eating habits, leading young people away from snacking on unhealthy foods and making healthier choices.

Technological solutions to health challenges

Tackling non-communicable diseases through tech

Vietnam
PATH
Fit for the future: Leveraging data and frontier technologies to build an NCD program for youth, with youth

Unhealthy diets, lack of physical exercise, smoking, and alcohol abuse are leading to an epidemic of non-communicable diseases like obesity and malnutrition in young people. PATH’s programme will analyse data around their behaviour, and develop a digital education platform to engage and motivate with competitions and quizzes, ultimately changing habits.

Building skills fit for the future

Upskilling young people online

India
ThinkZone
Technology-enabled Quality Learning Initiative in Urban Odisha

The education quality is poor in low resource communities in Odisha, India, which has led to large numbers of student drop-outs and fewer young people reaching their potential. ThinkZone is building a digital, mobile platform that can identify, upskill and equip youth going forward.

The challenge

We are living in an age of rapid and unprecedented change. A new wave of cutting-edge innovation and groundbreaking advancements in digital technology is transforming our cities and our lives. Together, we’re seeing changes from our social norms, to our economies. From our health and wellbeing to our political institutions. A new era, driven by technology.

For many of us today, it would be unthinkable to live in a world without access to the internet or the mobile device in our pocket. It goes beyond convenience – more and more key services are built upon this new digital infrastructure that we now take for granted. But despite its transformative power, that technology is not always serving the needs of everyone. There’s a huge digital divide in our cities, excluding groups across demographics, countries and regions, and having a real impact on their opportunities, health and wellbeing – especially for children and young people. That gap is getting wider. As much as technological advances can drive us forwards, so too can they take us back a step as a society – especially if the benefits are not equitable shared.

Young people must not be left behind —it’s as simple as that. By investing in new, impactful urban-development, technology and data-driven programs, we have a chance to make a change for young people in cities— one that lasts. With better tools, we can tackle persistent health, social, and economic challenges in completely new ways.

Our contribution

At Fondation Botnar, we want to recognise, understand, and leverage the critical role of technology in children and young people’s lives when designing interventions that engage with them for their wellbeing. Young people are stepping up every day to take us into the years to come. They are more than the leaders of tomorrow – they’re the voices of today. They need to be central actors in how we shape the future.

Fit4Future is about setting those young voices up for success. Through Fit4Future, we want them to represent themselves and create the changes in the world around them they want to see, especially in low and middle income countries. That’s why we put the call out for innovative solutions that use the power of technology to really involve young people in urban development, empowering them with future-ready skills and developing new, technological solutions to health and wellbeing challenges.

With smarter, data-driven solutions, we can address the imbalances and inequalities that lead to long-lasting health and lifestyle challenges for young people all around the world. It means learning quicker, identifying problems faster and pinpointing the interventions and programmes that really work to transform the lives of countless young people in meaningful ways. We’re here to invest in applying meaningful technological solutions to existing problems in our societies. Only then can we move forward – together.

Resources:

  • Watch our latest Impact Generation video with Nikita from Safetipin:
  • Read the Fit4Future: Strengthening local youth voices blog from Siddhartha Jha here
  • Watch a video from one of the Fit for Future partners, Open Skies Fellows:
  • Watch the Fit4Future announcement video:

Explore more projects

Joint Commission on Governing Health Futures 2030
Read more
Afya-Tek
Read more
Ada Health
Read more
The Future Now.
For Young People
Worldwide.

Fondation Botnar
St. Alban-Vorstadt 56
4052 Basel
Switzerland
info@fondationbotnar.org
+41 61 201 04 74

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