Summary
The second annual Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals (STI Forum) convened on Monday morning. Following opening addresses from ECOSOC President Frederick Musiiwa Makamure Shava, General Assembly President Peter Thomson, and Thomas Gass, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Bill Gates, Co-Chair, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, addressed the Forum by video.
The STI Forum Co-Chairs, Amb. Macharia Kamau (Kenya) and Vaughan Turekian (US), invited participants to bridge the science-policy gap and truly engage in an interactive dialogue across disciplines, specialties and borders.
Interactive panel discussions were held throughout the day. The first panel, Harnessing STI for the SDGs – the key to unlocking STI potentials, set the scene for the STI Forum and provided elements of a vision on harnessing the potential of STI for sustainable development. The six panels under Session 2, which took place in three parallel sessions, focused on key priorities for engaging STI for six SDGs:
- End poverty in all its forms everywhere (SDG 1)
- End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture (SDG 2)
- Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages (SDG 3)
- Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls (SDG 5)
- Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development (SDG 14)
- Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industralization and foster innovation (SDG 9)
An exhibition for innovative solutions to the SDGs 1, 2, 3, 5, 9 and 14 also took place in the lobby at UN Headquarters.
IISD Reporting Services, through its Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) Meeting Coverage, provided daily web updates from the STI Forum 2017. In addition, IISD Reporting Services has published a briefing note of the Forum in HTML and PDF.
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STI Forum Co-Chair Macharia Kamau; UN General Assembly President Peter Thomson; ECOSOC President Frederick Musiiwa Makamure Shava; Secretariat; and STI Forum Co-Chair Vaughan Turekian (US)
UN General Assembly President Peter Thomson
Bill Gates, Co-Chair, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, addressed the STI Forum via video
Indira Nath, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India
Elenita Daño, Asia Director, Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration, the Philippines, Moderator
Anne Kingiri, Senior Reseach Fellow, STI Policy, African Centre for Technology Studies, Kenya; Priyanthi Fernando, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Poverty Analysis, Sri Lanka; Dirk Fransaer, Managing Director, Flemish Institute for Technological Research; Co-Chair Vaughan Turekian; Secretary; and Gillian Tett, Financial Times
Dirk Fransaer, Managing Director, Flemish Institute for Technological Research
Gillian Tett, Financial Times, Moderator
Sarah Marniesse, French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development, France; Livio Valenti, Co-Founder, VP of Policy and Strategy, Vaxess Technologies; Co-Chair Vaughan Turekian; Secretary; and Paulo Gadelha, FIOCRUZ, Brazil
Myrna Cunningham, President, Center for Autonomy and Development of Indigenous Peoples, Nicaragua
Livio Valenti, Co-Founder, VP of Policy and Strategy, Vaxess Technologies
Dalia Francheska Marquez, Women’s Leaders Committee of OAS and Youth United in Action, Venezuela; Amb. Lana Nuesseibeh, Permanent Representative of the United Arab Emirates to the UN; Susil Premajayantha, Minister of Science, Technology and Research, Sri Lanka; Co-Chair Vaughan Turekian; Secretary; and Myrna Cunningham, Moderator
Matthew Merighi, Blue Water Metrics, USA; Martin Visbeck, University of Kiel, Germany; Arjoon Suddhoo, Mauritius Research Council; Co-Chair Macharia Kamau; Secretary; and Moderator Hayat Sindi, President, Institute for Imagination and Ingenuity, Saudi Arabia
Hayat Sindi, President, Institute for Imagination and Ingenuity, Saudi Arabia, Moderator
Martin Visbeck, University of Kiel, Germany
Around the Venue
