About UNFPA
UNFPA is the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency. Our mission is to deliver a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.Activities by UNFPA
SITA AI: Unlocking Data with AI
Asia and the Pacific Nepal
SITA AI is a conversational chatbot that makes complex national census data easy to understand. Instead of digging through massive spreadsheets or hundreds of pages of reports, users can simply type everyday questions like - "What is the literacy rate for women in this region?" - and the AI generates accurate answers and visual charts. It is built with a highly secure design, ensuring that sensitive government data remains private and protected at all times.
SITA AI automates the heavy lifting of data analysis, allowing governments to understand their own census results in real-time without needing a large team of specialized data scientists or coders.
GENAIE (Generative Artificial Intelligence for Education)
Africa EthiopiaTanzaniaGenerative Artificial Intelligence for Education (GENAIE) is an AI-enabled eLearning initiative piloted by the ESARO maternal health and innovation teams. It assists in creating e-learning modules on diverse topics in local languages quickly. GENAIE is a promising tool to enhance the health workers capacity by providing large volumes of high-quality, consistent e-learning and training content rapidly.
Activity Type Technical assistanceAI Tools/SolutionsTrainings/workshopsGender Bias Overview Tool (GenBOT)
Global United States
The Gender Bias Overview Tool (GenBOT) project involved a partnership among UNICC, UNFPA, and Columbia University Capstone participants from 2024. Gender bias in datasets, particularly in the field of machine learning and AI, has been a long-standing issue. Despite efforts toward inclusivity and diversity, women remain underrepresented in various stages of tech development, leading to inherent biases in datasets. These biases perpetuate themselves in the development of machine learning models and algorithms, causing skewed or inaccurate outputs that reinforce existing gender disparities. To address this issue, UNICC collaborated with UNFPA and Columbia University (students and faculty) to develop GenBOT, an adaptable data-auditing solution that provides users insights on gender bias in their datasets through automated AI analytics. The tool aims to guide stakeholders in creating equitable, gender-inclusive technologies and services.
Context Matters: A key lesson learned was the importance of context in evaluating gender bias. The definition and scope of bias need to be carefully defined with stakeholders to ensure the tool's effectiveness. Thresholds and Metrics: Determining appropriate thresholds for gender bias detection was a significant challenge. The team used established research and studies to refine the metrics used in the tool, ensuring that they aligned with best practices. Stakeholder Collaboration: Continuous communication with stakeholders such as UNFPA and UNICC was crucial in refining the bias thresholds and understanding their specific needs for gender bias detection.
Hayati Chatbot
Africa South SudanHayati is a mobile application developed by Men4Women in collaboration with UNFPA South Sudan. The chatbot provides young people with a platform where they can access SRH and GBV information confidentially. It was developed as an Android-based Mobile Application with integrated services and features such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR) through the National Helplines, location pinning, and analytics.
Activity Type AI Tools/SolutionsTechnical assistanceAwareness/Advocacy