UNICEF's Learning Passport one of the 100 best Inventions of 2021: Time

Celebration is in order, as the Learning Passport – UNICEF's innovative digital learning solution for out of school children – has been named by TIME Magazine as one of the 100 Best Inventions of 2021!

Borne out of our partnership with Microsoft, it is a truly co-created innovation which did not even exist in concept when discussions first began in 2017.

“Why does it feel extra special to me? Because we really did create this with Microsoft,” said Verity Nicholas, Chief, Corporate Partnerships. “It could not be a truer representation of the team work that has happened across the years following that meeting to develop the Learning Passport…we really created it from a blank sheet of paper; and through the technical brilliance and dogged faith of the colleagues at UNICEF and Microsoft, it continues to scale.”

First deployed in Timor-Leste in 2020, the global learning platform has expanded to help children and youth affected by the pandemic continue their education at home.

“The rapid scale-up of the Learning Passport – which will soon reach more than two million children in 13 countries – shows how we can transform learning with the right investment, commitment and creativity,” said Robert Jenkins, Director, Education and Adolescent Development. “It was an amazing team effort!”