Press Information

May 08, 2015

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The Philips Foundation commits to innovation that improves

the lives of children in need with the launch of the UNICEF
Global Innovation Center
New York, USA The Philips Foundation has extended its partnership with
UNICEF as one of the 5 founding partners and steering committee member
of the UNICEF Global Innovation Center (GIC). The GIC based in Nairobi,
Kenya is designed to build scale and accelerate innovations that will
improve childrens lives around the world. The Philips Foundation will also
provide UNICEFs innovation team with consultation and access to Philips
innovation processes and solutions as well as the companys
internal network of researchers and designers to solve challenges.
With the Global Innovation Centre and Innovation Fund, UNICEF is building
new forms of engagement between businesses and development
organizations that bring resources and expertise, to bear on childrens
issues, said Dr. Sharad Sapra, Director of the UNICEF Global Innovation
Centre. UNICEF welcomes the valuable contribution of the founding
members of the Global Innovation Centre and Innovation Fund for their
willingness to approach partnerships in an innovative way, and for their
commitment to improving childrens lives and futures, he added.
The Philips Foundation is actively engaging in projects around the world
that improve peoples lives since it was incorporated as a charitable
organization in 2014. The Foundation will link UNICEFs Innovation team
with support at Royal Philips to maximize the strength of their current
projects and realize opportunities to scale technology across countries even
faster. They will meet this week in a workshop led by Philips Design to
bring the GIC committee members together in a collaborative environment
to explore the many ways in which each member can engage with
innovation opportunities to create the most impactful outcomes for children
in the near future.
Supporting the UNICEF Global Innovation Centre is a natural next-step in
our partnership with UNICEF as it allows us to leverage Royal Philips
technology, innovation know-how and employees in a really meaningful
way to bring scale to social innovators in communities around the world in
support of children, said Ronald de Jong, Member of the Executive
Committee at Royal Philips and Chairman of the Philips Foundation.
Innovation as a means to improve peoples lives is at the heart of who we
are at Philips and we increasingly seek engagement and co-creation with
strong partners like UNICEF.
It is the second project in the Philips Foundation-UNICEF partnership
following the Maker Movement project which supports social entrepreneurs
to create, prototype and scale-up, low-cost maternal and newborn child
health equipment in Nairobi, Kenya. The project also leverages the onground expertise of employees at the Philips Africa Innovation Hub in
Nairobi to mentor social entrepreneurs to support infrastructure

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For further information, please contact:

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About Royal Philips:
Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a diversified health and
well-being company, focused on improving peoples lives through
meaningful innovation in the areas of Healthcare, Consumer Lifestyle and
Lighting. Headquartered in the Netherlands, Philips posted 2014 sales of
EUR 21.4 billion and employs approximately 108,000 employees with sales
and services in more than 100 countries. The company is a leader in
cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, energy efficient lighting
solutions and new lighting applications, as well as male shaving and
grooming and oral healthcare. News from Philips is located at
www.philips.com/newscenter.
About the Philips Foundation:
The Philips Foundation is a registered charity and has been created to help
enable lasting social change in disadvantaged communities through the
provision and application of innovation, talent and resources. Together with
key partners the International Red Cross and UNICEF, the Philips Foundation
seeks to identify the challenges where a combination of Philips expertise
and partner experience can be used to create meaningful solutions that
impact peoples lives. The Philips Foundation has three main program
areas: disaster relief, community development and social entrepreneurship.
Programs run throughout the world in Philips country locations will also be
supported and channeled through the Philips Foundation. The Philips
Foundations work supports Royal Philips ambition to improve the lives of 3
billion people a year by 2025. www.philips-foundation.com
Registered charity in the Netherlands (ANBI), RSIN number 854184788
About UNICEF
UNICEF promotes the rights and well-being of every child, in everything we
do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to
translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on
reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all
children, everywhere. For more information about UNICEF visit:
www.unicef.org. To view UNICEFs 2014 State of the Worlds Children on
Innovation, visit: http://sowc2015.unicef.org/. Follow us on Twitter and
Facebook.

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About UNICEF Innovation

UNICEF Innovation is an interdisciplinary team of individuals around the
world tasked with identifying, prototyping, and scaling technologies and
practices that strengthen UNICEFs work. Through our network of 12
Innovation Labs and presence in 190 countries, we build and scale
innovations that improve childrens lives around the world. For more
information about UNICEFs work in innovation, visit:
www.unicef.org/innovation and www.unicefstories.org. Follow us on Twitter.

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