Emerging technologies and digital access can greatly improve the well-being, education, health, and livelihoods of women and girls. However, a significant digital gender gap remains, limiting the equitable benefits of digital transformation. The Commission on the Status of Women – an intergovernmental body dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment – will address this problem in its 67th session (6-17 March). The group will revisit the gendered impacts of innovation and identify recommendations for a more inclusive and equitable digital evolution.
Science and Technology
The AI for Good Global Summit will demonstrate how new technologies can support the UN Sustainable Development Goals in areas such as combatting the climate crisis and bolstering humanitarian response.
Issues of science, technology, and innovation remain endemic to development, and furthering our understanding of these issues is a core challenge for policy research. Deepening its commitment to this goal, UNCTAD launches the 2023 edition of its Technology and Innovation Report, a flagship publication that this year focuses specifically on what can be achieved by technological innovation by opening 'green windows of opportunity'. The report is built around green innovation - creating or introducing new or improved goods and services that leave lighter carbon footprints.
Today, only one in three researchers is a woman. The International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February) is a reminder that women and girls play a critical role in science and technology communities and that their participation should be strengthened. Under the theme of “Innovate. Demonstrate. Elevate. Advance. Sustain. - Bringing Everyone Forward for Sustainable and Equitable Development”, the 8th International Day of Women and Girls in Science Assembly will focus on the role of women and girls in science as relates to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). #WomenInScience
By mainstreaming the use of digital technologies in agriculture, FAO is helping to transform rural communities, particularly for youth and aspiring farmers, to diversify incomes and unlock on- and off-farm opportunities. Digital technologies can help increase the production of sufficient nutritious food for an ever-growing population, manage our limited natural resources and reduce poverty.
The United Nations is increasingly turning to immersive storytelling to brief decision makers in New York on international affairs. In December, UN DPPA invited diplomats to try out virtual reality on the work of the UN Verification Mission in Colombia. Watch the documentary to find out the diplomats’ impressions following their first-time encounter with VR.
Science does have the potential to change our world by making it more sustainable. “We need more basic science to achieve the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals”, the United Nations General Assembly noted in December 2021. In the context of the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development (2022), this year's World Science Day for Peace and Development highlights the importance of “basic sciences for sustainable development”. Use #ScienceDay to join the conversation.
The theme of the 2022 World Space Week (4-10 October) - Space and Sustainability - is inspired by how space exploration and remote Earth observation can help drive change for our home planet. This includes measuring climate change, identifying pollution on land and at sea, supporting agriculture in developing nations. Of the 169 targets that form the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), 65 directly benefit from Earth observation satellites and related technologies. Achieving the SDGs would be so much harder without the tools and techniques available to scientists through space exploration.
For the next 5 episodes of Technology for Good, ITU is focusing on technological challenges and opportunities through the eyes of some incredible and inspirational women in tech, in the run up to and during the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, or PP-22. This major event will gather policymakers from ITU’s 193 member states to take decisions that will shape the future of technology, making it greener, more gender and youth inclusive and more accessible to everyone on our planet.
Women from all over the world studying nuclear-related subjects are encouraged to apply for the IAEA’s Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellowship Programme by 30 September 2022.
WHO activities on the Responsible Use of the Life Sciences intend to increase awareness and provide tools to foster benefits and constrain risks stemming from dual use life sciences and technologies. Using its role as a leader in public health globally, WHO works with Member States and relevant stakeholders to harness responsible science and to establish mechanisms for adopting changes in practice that support safe, secure and responsible life sciences.
Share your best “Technology for good” photos and win a prize. The ITU photography contest deadline is 22 July.
World Youth Skills Day 2022 (15 July) takes place amid efforts towards a socio-economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, interconnected with challenges such as climate change, conflict, persisting poverty, rising inequality, rapid technological change, demographic transition and others. This year’s observation highlights the ongoing focus on the Transforming Education Summit and contribute to the work being done under its Thematic Action Track “Learning and skills for life, work, and sustainable development”. Register to participate the global event!
ITU organizes a World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC) every four years to further telecommunication development. At a time when access to digital technologies has never mattered more, WTDC is a unique opportunity to develop innovative approaches and new models of collaboration for connectivity and digital solutions towards the achievement of the SDGs. The conference takes place this year in Kigali, Rwanda, from 6 to 16 June. In parallel, launching on 6 June, the Global Connectivity Report 2022 takes stock and charts a path to universal and meaningful connectivity.