United Nations Nepal celebrated UN’s 73rd anniversary here at the UN House on Friday.

The Nepal chapter held an Open House Day titled ‘Innovation for Sustainable Development’ to celebrate the occasion.

Nineteen UN agencies along with more than a dozen partner organisations displayed their activities.

Speaking at the event, the UN Women Nepal’s Resident Coordinator Wenny Kusuma said, “We have chosen innovation as a theme to showcase how the United Nations in Nepal adopts innovation and uses it to support Nepal to achieve sustainable development.

“With the federalisation and development process taking shape rapidly in Nepal, there is great potential for technology and innovation. It is crucial for the UN to encourage the adoption of these technologies and innovation to further alleviate gender inequalities and ensure no one is left behind.”

On display at the event were initiatives such as demonstrations on digital banking; Khulduli app that promotes sexual and reproductive health rights of adolescent children in Nepal; an app to spread awareness on malnutrition problem in Nepal and provide services to users.

Among the cellphone apps on display is UN agency’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) app called MigApp. The app offers one-stop-shop application where migrants can logon using their phones to access information and services relevant to their specific migration process.The IOM app helps migrants make informed decisions throughout the migration process. Irregular and unsafe migration often is a result of lack of awareness about the risks involved in the process, ill-informed knowledge of visa and travel regulations, limited or non-existent interaction with legitimate service providers, and the absence of a balanced and unified platform for reliable and updated migration information and services. MigApp aims to offset the volume of misinformation on migration that circulates at present.

It provides migrants access to services related to their migration process. Each migrant has a need for services specific to his/her migration process. IOM has a wide range of services that addresses practically every aspect of migration.

MigApp aims to make some of IOM’s programmes and services directly available to a wider group of migrants.

It is a platform for migrants to share their experiences, tell their story and upload a picture that will be shared among other MigApp users.