UN And Narratize Tackle World Hunger Through AI Storytelling Platform

World hunger is No. 2 on the United Nations’ (UN) list of top Sustainable Development Goals. With more than 600 million people suffering from food poverty globally, the UN’s youth-led World Food Forum is a few steps closer to narrowing the global hunger gap, thanks to a creative collaboration with Narratize – a storytelling AI platform for technical research teams. The partnership is enabling researchers around the world to get attention and funds for their innovative solutions to end hunger.

A Powerful Partnership

The World Food Forum (WFF) launched in 2021 as an independent, youth-led global network of partners facilitated by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Their goal is to stop world hunger by the end of the decade.

One way they are making this happen is by empowering the next generation of researchers who have creative ideas that can challenge conventional approaches. A big part of their effort is the annual Transformative Research Challenge or TRC — an open call for innovative ideas.

The problem, however, is that, oftentimes, the most innovative ideas never get beyond research, because they are so innovative, they’re hard to articulate. Equally tough is distilling mountains of research data into a concise pitch that will capture widespread attention and, ultimately, funding.

The WFF began collaborating with Katie Trauth Taylor in 2023, a Ph.D. holder in rhetoric and technical communication from Purdue University. At the time, Taylor was in the middle of launching a new tech startup called Narratize that allows researchers to use an AI platform specialized in converting research insights into impactful communications.

Taylor was excited about the potential.

“We wake up every day knowing that solutions are out there to critical societal challenges, and they can be accelerated through effective communication. I was confident we could help researchers better pitch their ideas and increase their chances of getting funding, if they used Narratize for the Transformation Research Challenge,” said Taylor during a recent phone conversation with me.

Simplifying The Message

Over 250 research teams — nearly half of all of those that participated — opted to use Narratize to prepare their submission materials in 2023. Explained Taylor, “Groups in the Transformation Research Challenge used Narratize to help them with things like adding key, precise phrases in their final scripts, reducing the amount of jargon in their submissions and simplifying their messaging into something that was both compelling and easy to digest.”

The impact was undeniable. Five out of six winners used Narratize to prepare their submission materials. Winning projects co-authored with Narratize include:

• The first and only study on food waste in Latin America
• A framework for integrating indigenous sciences within Kenya’s policies on zoonotic disease prevention.
• Biotechnology that leverages palm kernel meal, a waste product, into an immunity-boosting prebiotic for chickens, a cornerstone species of the Indonesian food system.

Claudia Burgos, a member of the Honduras-based research initiative CATIE was proud that her group won the food-waste category. Her team was delighted to get the chance to use Narratize to help develop their pitches, as well.

“The AI just produced a whole document with language that is simple, but it got a little scientific. It was easy to read. The main public will understand it, but also the senior researchers will know what you’re talking about,” she said during a recent video interview. “People who don’t know the subject at all will know the subject if they read it, and people who specialize in the field will be captivated.”

The Impact Of Clear Communication

The partnership between World Food Forum and Narratize reflects the power of clear communication, especially in the science and health spaces, where upwards of 70 percent of funding applications fail.

Firms often struggle to get their message across or to balance proper messaging for specialists and non-specialists alike. Messages get muddled and lost across teams and departments. Great ideas and initiatives suffer because organizations struggle to communicate intentions and priorities with team members and outside stakeholders.

Speaking with me, Taylor further detailed the dilemma, saying, “When companies apply for funding or pitch their ideas, they have to know their message inside-and-out — and be able to properly convey it—in order to give themselves the best chance of success. Clear communication is a struggle for many organizations, especially when implementation needs to stretch to different areas of the organization.”

The Bottom Line

The bottom line?

Getting your idea across is essential in getting funding for your innovative, world-changing ideas. It’s often not enough just to come up with a great idea. Sometimes you need help with understanding the most important elements of the message to achieve your communication goals.