Emergencies bring a slew of unexpected issues: information technologies fail, power is not available, the water supply is cut, food is scarce and health problems spread quickly. UNICEF and Socialab got together, discussed these problems and fell upon an important question: How can we assist victims of disasters more efficiently and save more lives? The decision was to co-launch the "Global Innovation Challenge: First 72 Hours."

To date, there are over 100 ideas from all around the globe focused on taking action in the first 72 hours after the on-set of a catastrophe. Some of the ideas are focused on finding and re-uniting families, others on accessing basic services and many on how to keep children safe post-disaster. An entire archive of the submitted ideas can be viewed here.

Through the open online platform, anyone can upload their idea, discuss it, share it and, if the idea is selected to move forward, make their plan into an actual project to improve the lives of children and families. Visitors can also access learning tools about disasters and innovation here.

To turn these ideas into more concrete solutions, projects selected to move from the ideation to the co-creation stage must design and test prototypes with key players, including the essential end user so they can better understand the idea and test its success. To enter your own idea, check out the project guidelines and submit your work here.