Thomas Edison once said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” That sentiment was alive and well when the U.S. Fund recently hosted FailFaire NYC, a convening that highlights Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) projects gone awry. The goal in airing our dirty laundry? Sharing what doesn’t work in order to move the community more quickly toward what does work.
It is hope—hope for a better, more equitable world; hope for a day when zero children die of preventable causes —that drives UNICEF’s work. At the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, it’s our job to spread that message of hope, and to secure the resources to sustain it and help it grow.
But the world is a seemingly inhospitable place for optimism: famine in the Horn of Africa, flooding in Pakistan and El Salvador, and poverty, disease, and exploitation across the developing world. So I can’t help but ask the question: are we wrong to hope?
Thirty years ago, only one out of five children were immunized against killer diseases like measles and polio. Throughout the developing world, millions of children were dying of illnesses that had all but disappeared in the world’s wealthier countries. Since then, a near miracle has taken place. Now, four out of five children are protected by vaccines. Polio is on the verge of elimination. Measles and tetanus deaths have been reduced dramatically. This miracle did not happen by itself.
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