ABOUT US
Dedicated to protecting human capital
OUR PURPOSE
UNITLIFE is a global initiative protecting human capital by solving the challenge of inequality from birth.
We support mothers by laying the foundation of their children's healthy future and the development of a more sustainable and nutritious food system.
Malnutrition during the first 1,000 days of life (chronic malnutrition) is one of the most common diseases in the world, affecting 1 in 5 children (149 million) globally, limiting their future health and prosperity. It happens when children do not get the nutrition they require for healthy growth and development during the first 1,000 days of their lives. This type of malnutrition, called chronic malnutrition, has irreversible and lifelong consequences on the development of children’s bodies, brains and immune systems. By age 2, 70% of brain connections are formed.
Despite the irreversible consequences of this disease, lack of investment hinders the progress in the fight against malnutrition during the first 1,000 days of life. UNITLIFE was created by the UN Capital Development Fund and UN Women to address this gap.
UNITLIFE seeks to close the investment gap by raising funding through innovative partnerships with private sector players and direct citizen contributions. UNITLIFE finances nutritious food systems and invests in women’s empowerment and climate-smart agriculture. UNITLIFE aims to protect the next generation.
Chronic malnutrition in detail
OUR APPROACH
We create a community of companies and individuals who care about fighting malnutrition during the first 1,000 days of life.
We harness the power of local businesses and the digital economy by building innovative partnerships with businesses to inject expertise, innovation while unlocking financial resources.
- Connecting ecosystems: UNITLIFE mobilizes businesses, civil society and the development stakeholders to create a coalition of actors working together in the same direction.
- Agile & collaborative: UNITLIFE co-designs project components with its partners to meet common priorities, while pooling scientific and business capabilities and injecting the right expertise and assets into projects.
- Clear mandate to deliver local solutions: UNITLIFE serves a clear and targeted mandate to accelerate small-scale impactful projects through innovation and involvement of local partners, all through rigorous monitoring.
Through enablement of innovative finance models with companies, the funded projects:
- Ensure a sustainable and nutritious food system leveraging innovation and tech when possible.
- Focus on women & youth as strategic members of ecosystems to ensure their economic empowerment for greater and more sustainable impact.
- Enable the potential of human capital and shape the inclusive economy of tomorrow.
You can learn more about our investment priorities here.
OUR END-TO-END APPROACH
How do we select, connect and measure our projects?
Stage 1. Ideation
We work in an agile and iterative way to identify relevant small-scale projects or components with high impact and innovative by design.
Engage with international, regional national, and local stakeholders’ experts to identify most innovative and relevant interventions capturing local needs for UNITLIFE's project portfolio.
Co-design interventions with interested private sector partners who can provide resources to a project in their country of interest. Check our current partners.
Stage 2. Validation
We mobilize independent technical experts to select projects in a transparent way.
Involve a Technical Review Committee, composed of independent experts (academics, scientists, development agents) to assess and score projects submitted by international NGOs and UN agencies through a call for interest.
The final decision is made by the Executive Board to ensure the projects are in line with UNITLIFE’s investment strategy.
Stage 3. Execution
We continuously work with partners on the ground to ensure local and long-lasting impact.
Rely on implementing partners, who have a strong local footprint and involve local communities, companies, and civil society organizations. This ensures ownership and continuity even after the project is completed.
Support the partners on the ground with accessible expertise and assets and manage the proper articulation between economic empowerment and social & behavior change to maximize impact sustainability.
Stage 4. Impact monitoring
We take an integrated approach to monitoring and evaluation to ensure accountability and transparency of UNITLIFE projects.
Ensure regular monitoring involving local partners and field visits conducted by UNITLIFE Secretariat or the coordinator of a UN in-country nutrition coordination group
Establish a strong accountability framework with use of funds and control mechanisms verified by external audits, and fiduciary assessments conducted by independent specialized firm.
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