Telenor Youth Forum Showcased New Ideas About Digital Techs To Benefit Human Health

Four new ideas were showcased at finale of Telenor Youth Forum on Wednesday that leveraged mobile and digital technology to benefit human health.

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 12th Dec, 2018 ) :Four new ideas were showcased at finale of Telenor Youth Forum on Wednesday that leveraged mobile and digital technology to benefit human health.

Sixteen Telenor Youth Forum delegates (for 2018-2019 programme) worked over last four days in Oslo, Norway to develop solutions, aimed at reducing inequalities within global health.

A message received here said these health-related challenges are to optimize agriculture, ensure clean water supply, reduce rise of non-communicable diseases and support a growing elderly population.

Four teams of delegates pitched their proposals to a jury which included Director for Corporate Partnerships & Innovation, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), Amer Farid, SHE CEO Susanne Kaluza, Telenor Group Executive Vice President (EVP) & Head of People, CecilieHeuch, and Telenor Health Chief Growth Officer Matthew Guilford.

Telenor Group President and CEO SigveBrekke has said, "Every year, we run Telenor Youth Forum to give a global platform to passionate youth who want to start a change in world. We run this programme in collaboration with Nobel Peace Center, during time of Nobel Peace prize." He said the goal is to connect these young leaders with resources and expertise needed to develop sustainable, digital solutions to urgent social challenges, and "We are excited about their proposals." He expressed the hope that the innovative digital solutions from Telenor Youth Forum delegates would contribute considerably to reducing inequalities within global health.

"We're especially excited to see Pakistani delegates working on clean water for all and non-communicable disease risk mitigation projects and hope that their solutions will help those who need it the most. We are confident that through Telenor Youth Forum, we will be able to shape a better future that holds more opportunities and fewer challenges for our generations to come," said Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Telenor Pakistan, Irfan Wahab Khan.

Health's omnipresence as a topic and its direct relationship with development, societal empowerment, and human equality is why the Telenor Youth Forum has selected it as this year's theme and focus.

Addressing agricultural challenge, the delegates - Sameen Alam (Bangladesh), Rachel Loh (Malaysia), Ingrid Rasmussen (Denmark) and Emilie Udn�s (Norway) proposed a digital collaboration platform which enables small-scale farmers to team up to rate and sell their crops to middlemen, magnify their bargaining power and share transport costs.

It also reduces bias against women farmers by withholding information about gender of the farmer, focusing only on quality of crops, prices, and transport.

The delegates Saima Khan (Bangladesh), Lucas McNabb (Sweden), Asma Ladak (Pakistan) and Nang Yin Yin Win Nwe (Myanmar) took on challenge of ensuring clean water.

They proposed a solution that allows low income or rural families to report water contamination issues through simple feature phones.

Very often, water quality goes unreported in poorer communities and their feature phone-driven proposal connects people in need with people and organizations and authorities who can help.

Higher income smartphone users can then be connected via an app to donate and to follow up with organizations and authorities with whom they may be better connected.

Tackling challenge of non-communicable diseases, Maieda Janjua (Pakistan), Gabrielle Stoop (Sweden), Cherngchay Tacho (Thailand) and Felicia Yoon (Malaysia) proposed a digital platform addressing mental health. The platform was aimed to connect students and working professionals alike with mental health services and counseling provided by NGOs and health institutions. The platform can be leveraged by companies to use as a health benefit for employees, which in turn funds free outreach to schools for mental health awareness building and counseling services for students.

In just four days, these delegates, once just individual applicants in more than 5,000 persons talent pool, have gone from complete strangers to productive close-knit teams of social entrepreneurs.

Four teams will be scored throughout the programme based on concept proposals in Oslo in December, on progress between Oslo kick-off event and finale event in Bangkok in May 2019, which includes a final pitch.

The winning team will be awarded Rs. 16,50,000 to further develop their solution. The four teams' challenges, journey, and their final concepts are then featured in a digitalexhibition, sponsored by Telenor Youth Forum andNobel Peace Center.