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UN Digital Cooperation Day

From Principles to Practice: One Year of the GDC

Monday, 22 September 2025
9:00 – 20:00 ET
Ease · 605 3rd Avenue · New York City

In-person, with live broadcast for certain sessions (see links below)

Confirmed Speakers

Livestream Links


Oasis Room Livestream


Bamboo North Room Livestream

Context

Organized by the Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (ODET), Digital Cooperation Day takes place during the UN General Assembly High-Level Week, marking exactly one year since the adoption of the Global Digital Compact.

Leaders from government, the private sector, civil society, and academia will convene for panels, roundtables, and launches by ODET and partners, showcasing progress and new initiatives across key themes of the Compact. The agenda spans inclusive digital economies, AI governance, and digital public infrastructure as foundations for open, safe, secure, and accountable digital futures.

  • The adoption of the Global Digital Compact in September 2024 marked a milestone in digital cooperation. With the Compact, world leaders signalled that digital technologies and AI are a central pillar of international cooperation. The event will be an opportunity to take stock of the achievements of the Compact and discuss the priorities moving forward. The session is designed to allow for an interactive discussion between the briefers and the audience.

    Keynotes

    • Amandeep Singh Gill — Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies
    • Doreen Bogdan-Martin — Secretary-General, ITU
    • María González Veracruz — Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence, Spain
    • H.E. Chola Milambo — Permanent Representative of Zambia to the UN

    Panelists

    • H.E. Veronica Nduva — Secretary General, East African Community
    • H.E. Anne Marie Engtoft Meldgaard — Tech Ambassador, Denmark MFA
    • Whitney Baird — CEO, United States Council for International Business (USCIB)

    Moderator

    • Isabel de Sola Criado — Programme Management Officer, UN-ODET

    MC

    • Sinéad Bovell — Founder, WAYE
  • Digital technologies contribute to growth in the trade of goods and services, and can spur innovation and productivity worldwide. Yet, data-driven economies of scale and network effects tend to concentrate market power in the digital economy. While technology can lead to job creation and reduce environmental footprints of production, the impacts of AI on labor markets, energy, and water consumption are difficult to account for. How can international cooperation support enabling environments for inclusive digital transformation, and foster innovation and entrepreneurship, including among women, youth, and entrepreneurs?
  • The first part of the session, co-hosted by the UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (UN ODET) and UN-Habitat, will bring together key stakeholders to explore how cities can learn from each other to harness the potential of digital technology and close digital divides. The second part, co-hosted by UN ODET and the UN Development Coordination Office (UN DCO), will spotlight the critical role of national leadership and UN Resident Coordinators in translating the GDC into meaningful, inclusive action at the community level, featuring insights from national stakeholders on accelerating digital cooperation from the ground up.

    Co-hosted with UN-Habitat and UN DCO

    Mayors for Digital Cooperation

    Remarks

    • Anacláudia Rossbach — Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UN-Habitat
    • Isabel de Sola Criado — Programme Management Officer, UN-ODET

    Moderator

    • Dave Amos — Assistant Professor of City Planning & Creator of City Beautiful

    Panelists

    • Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr — Mayor, Freetown
    • Gina Ortiz Jones — Mayor, San Antonio

    Empowering Country-Led Action for Digital Transformation

    Remarks

    • Amandeep Singh Gill — Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies

    Panelists

    • Claver Gatete — Under-Secretary-General, Economic Commission for Africa
    • Rehab Alarfaj — General Manager of Strategic Partnerships and Indices, Saudi Data and AI
    • Bagdat Mussin — Chairman of the Board, Kazakhtelecom
    • Kalpak Gude — Head of Global Regulatory Affairs, Project Kuiper at Amazon
    • Osama Manzar — Founder and Director, Digital Empowerment Foundation

    Moderator

    • Kat Kuai — Innovation Strategist, UN Development Cooperation Office

  • Keynote

    • Volker Türk — United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

    Moderator

    • Laura O’Brien — Senior International Counsel, Access Now

    Panelists

    • Amb. Lavina Ramkissoon — African Union
    • Martin Bille Hermann — European External Action Service

  • Speakers

    • Christina Williams — Attorney at Law
    • Amandeep Singh Gill — Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies
    • Vilas Dhar — President, The Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
    • Rasmus Munk — Chef and Co-Owner, Restaurant Alchemist
    • Salome Agbaroji — National Youth Poet Laureate of the United States

  • 1. High-level Opening

    2. Country Showcases: The GDC reinforces political and financial backing for DPI, with commitments to scale investments, establish safeguards, and share best practices. The DPI Safeguards Initiative, stewarded by UN ODET and UNDP, ensures benefits are maximized while risks are managed. This segment will present country showcases on adopting the Safeguards Framework.

    3. Launching New Global Assets: Since its launch, the initiative has developed the first Universal DPI Safeguards Framework, published in September 2024, and has worked to mainstream it globally. This includes supporting countries in adapting the framework to local contexts and creating tools and resources to guide practitioners.​ This segment will present the new tools the DPI Safeguards Working Groups have developed.

    4. Funding for DPI Safeguards: This segment addresses the question how stakeholders can ensure that every DPI project puts adequate safeguards in place. In particular, the panel will discuss how sustainable funding can be secured.

    Co-hosted with UNDP

    Speakers

    • Robert Opp — Chief Digital Officer, Digital AI and Innovation Hub, UNDP
    • Alex Wong — Senior Advisor, Office of the ITU Secretary General
    • Adauto Modesto — Deputy Vice Minister of Management and Innovation and Public Services, Brazil
    • Sudhakar Dalela — Secretary of Economic Relations, Ministry of External Affairs, India
    • Mondli Gungubele — Deputy Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies, South Africa
    • Elizabeth Atori — Program Manager, Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER), Uganda
    • Liv Marte Nordhaug — Secretariat CEO, Digital Public Goods Alliance
    • Abisoye Coker-Odusote — Director-General/Chief Executive Officer, NIMC
    • Antoine Sebera — CEO, Rwanda Information Society Authority (RISA)
    • Amandeep Singh Gill — Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies
    • Elizabeth Garber — Founder, Humanitech
    • Edward Cable — President/CEO & Co-Founder, Mifos Initiative
    • Tobi Kasali — Senior Analyst, United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies
    • Francesco Stabilito — Project Manager, United Nations Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies
    • Sangbu Kim — Vice President for Digital, World Bank
    • Sanjay Jain — Director, Gates Foundation
    • Heidy Rombouts — Director General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid, Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
    • Laura Bingham — Executive Director, Institute for Law, Innovation & Technology
    • Melvin Lubega — Lead, Digital Services Unit, Presidency of South Africa

    Moderators

    • Moritz Fromageot — Associate Expert, UN Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies
    • Keyzom Ngodup Massally — Head of Digital and AI Programmes, UNDP
    • Raja Chandrasekharan — DPI Safeguards Lead, UNDP
  • The DPI Insights Community was created to generate country-level evidence on how DPI works in practice—surfacing real challenges and opportunities and ensuring the Safeguards Framework remains relevant. Interest has been enormous, with more than 300 applications from 67 countries. This segment, co-hosted with UNDP and in partnership with the Center for Financial Inclusion, will present the first round of grants and explore how to make evidence generation more systematic so local experiences translate into actionable insights for global policy and implementation.

    Co-hosted with UNDP in partnership with Center for Financial Inclusion

    Speakers

    • Salima Bah — Minister of Communications, Technology & Innovation, Sierra Leone
    • Max Cuvellier — Head of Mobile for Development, GSMA
    • Michael Schlein — President & Chief Executive Officer, Accion
    • María González Veracruz — Secretary of State for Digitization and Artificial Intelligence, Spain
    • Matthew McNaughton — Director for Inclusion, Safety and Civil Society Engagement, Co-Develop
    • Edoardo Totolo — Deputy Managing Director, Center for Financial Inclusion

    Moderators

    • Payal Dalal — Executive Vice President, Center for Inclusive Growth
  • This side event will serve as the closing session of the Digital Cooperation Day organized by the Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (ODET), highlighting how innovative AI solutions from the private sector can expand inclusion and access to the digital economy, transform industries, and help bridge the global digital divide. It will also present collective contributions to Objective 2 of the Global Digital Compact (GDC) on an inclusive digital economy, including the announcement of the winners of the Global Call for Solutions. The event will showcase the impact of public–private partnerships in emerging technologies, highlighting innovative lighthouse solutions and the technology hubs approach. By leveraging AI, innovation, and digital technologies, these initiatives aim to foster global cooperation and advance an inclusive digital economy. The event will also reaffirm industry partners’ shared commitment to driving industrial and economic transformation—ensuring that no one is left behind.

    Speakers

    • Gerd Müller — Director General, UNIDO
    • H.E. William Kabogo Gitau — Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications and Digital Economy, Republic of Kenya
    • Eng. Sami Muqeem — Vice President, Saudi Data & AI Authority, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
    • Oleksandr Tsybort — Deputy Minister for Digital Development, Digital Transformations and Digitalization, Ministry of Economy, Environment and Agriculture, Ukraine
    • Pedro Manuel Moreno — Deputy Secretary-General, UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
    • Anna Marks — Global Chair, Deloitte
    • Andre Bechtold — President, SAP
    • Raed Aljadaani — Vice President of Technology, Saudi Data & AI Authority, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
    • Naria Santa Lucia — General Manager, Microsoft Elevate
    • Jonah Smith — Vice President of Responsible Business, IBM
    • Tahar Kerkeni — Lead, Lighthouse Operating System, World Economic Forum
    • Celina Lee — CEO & Founder, ZINDI
    • Dion Harris — Senior Director, HPC, Cloud & AI Infrastructure Solutions GTM, NVIDIA
    • Bernardo Junior — Assistant Secretary-General and Chief Information Technology Officer (CITO), United Nations
    • Amandeep Singh Gill — Under-Secretary-General and Special Envoy for Digital and Emerging Technologies
    • Jason Slater — Chief AI, Innovation and Digital Economy Officer, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)

    MC

    • Isabel de Sola Criado
  • 11:00 – 12:00
    WSIS+20 Review — What’s Next for Digital Cooperation*
  • 12:30 – 14:00
    COP30 | Solutions Dialogue — DPI for Climate: Weaving Shared Prosperity Through Interoperability*
  • This session will mark the first anniversary of the Global Digital Compact by focusing on implementation, showing how international standards and capacity building can enable trustworthy, interoperable AI. It will elevate Global South priorities, share practical country approaches, and foster collaboration ahead of the International AI Standards Summit 2025 in Seoul.

    Co-organized by ITU, ISO & IEC

  • 16:00 – 17:00
    Financing Global AI Capacity*

*Indicates closed door meeting

  • 18:00 – 20:00
    Reception

Note: by attending Digital Cooperation Day, you consent to photography and video recording, which may be used for documentation and communication purposes.