On 4–5 May 2021, the United Nations Science, Technology and Innovation Forum will convene in a virtual session co-chaired by the Permanent Representative of Latvia to the United Nations in New York, Ambassador Andrejs Pildegovičs, and the Chargé d’Affaires of the Indonesia Mission to the United Nations, Ambassador Mohammad Koba.
The theme of the forum is “Science, technology and innovation for a sustainable and resilient COVID-19 recovery, and effective pathways of inclusive action towards the Sustainable Development Goals”. The participants will also discuss the influence of the quickly developing new technologies on sustainable development, and the topics related to inclusion, digital cooperation, and opportunities offered by global digital transformation.
The participants of the 5 May session of the forum on promoting inclusion for creating innovations includes Anna Andersone, CEO of Riga TechGirls, who will share experience on the involvement of women and girls in the technology and IT sector.
See the programme of the forum on the event’s website at https://sdgs.un.org/tfm/STIForum2021.
Watch the forum online on UN Web TV at http://webtv.un.org.
Backround information
On 1 January 2020, Latvia launched a three-year period of work on the United Nations Economic and Social Affairs Council (ECOSOC), the main UN body responsible for sustainable development and economic matters. Latvia has been elected to two subsidiary bodies of ECOSOC: the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women; and the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development.
The Science, Technology and Innovation Forum is a key component of the UN Technology Facilitation Mechanism established in the ECOSOC framework in 2015 upon the launch of 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The forum is mandated to facilitate discussions on science, technology and innovation based on a multi-stakeholder collaboration between Member States, United Nations entities, civil society, the private sector, the scientific community, and other stakeholders. Conclusions from the discussion will provide inputs to the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), which is the main coordinating format at the United Nations for monitoring the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals. Latvia has assumed the chairmanship of the forum for the first time thereby affirming its contribution to the achievement of SDGs.