Erica Kochi (高知エリカ, Kōchi Erika, born 1979, in Sendai, Japan) is a humanitarian and a technologist who worked in UNICEF's Innovation Unit with Christopher Fabian.[1] In 2013, she was chosen by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.[2][3]
Erica Kochi | |
|---|---|
| Born | 18 October 1979 Sendai, Japan |
| Occupation | Humanitarian |
| Known for | UNICEF Innovation, RapidSMS, UReport |
| Website | ericakochi |
UNICEF Innovation works in the design of development solutions.[4] Examples of this work include the Digital Drum, a computer packaged in an oil drum helping rural communities that have difficulty getting information about health, education and other issues.[5] RapidSMS is a system that uses basic mobile phones and SMS messages to communicate with front-line workers and improve the speed and quality of data collection and health and education services.[6] It won a Gold [7] and Silver [8] IDSA awards, and a Redhat prize for being one of the top four open source projects [9]
Kochi's UNICEF Innovation has worked with partners to develop open source technologies that have registered 7 million births in Nigeria over 15 months and provided antenatal care to thousands of pregnant women across Rwanda.[10] These systems have led to successes such as the tracking of the distribution of more than 25 million insecticide treated mosquito nets and a direct feedback loop from more than 190,000 young Ugandans to engage with their government and change policy in real time.[11]
Before UNICEF, Kochi worked with the Commission for Macroeconomics and Health, a joint collaboration between the World Bank and the World Health Organization.
Kochi co-taught "Design for UNICEF" at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts with Clay Shirky.[12] She has lectured at the Yale School of Management, Harvard University, the Art Center College of Design, Stanford University School of Engineering, and Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs on technology, innovation, design and international development.
Kochi left unicef in 2020.
References
edit- ^ Erica Kochi personal website
- ^ Dorsey, Jack (18 April 2013). "The 2013 Time 100: Christopher Fabian and Erica Kochi". Time.
- ^ Time』誌が選ぶ、世界でもっとも影響力のある100人。ファッション界からはマイケル・コース、J.Crew ジェナ・ライオンズ、ユニクロ柳井正. The Fashion Post. 20 April 2013.
- ^ Unicef Stories
- ^ "The 50 Best Inventions of 2011". Time. 28 November 2011.
- ^ "RapidSMS Overview". Archived from the original on 19 April 2013. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
- ^ The Industrial Designers Society of America: Gold Award - UNICEF Project Mwana: Using Mobile Technologies to Improve the Lives of Underserved
- ^ The Industrial Designers Society of America: Silver Award - UNICEF Project Mwana: Strategy for Integrating Mobile Services and Real Time Data
- ^ Red Hat: A Billion Thanks to the Open Source Community from Red Hat
- ^ Government of Rwanda: RapidSMS blog
- ^ UReport
- ^ Tisch ITP: Design for UNICEF