"Digital Cooperation to Leave No One Behind:

Implementing the Secretary-General’s Roadmap"

STI Forum 2021 - Side-event

Tuesday, 4 May 2021, 2:00-3:00pm EDT

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In June 2020, the United Nations Secretary-General launched his Roadmap for Digital Cooperation (https://undocs.org/en/A/74/821). Highlighting the challenges and opportunities of digital technologies, the Roadmap points out that mitigating the former and harnessing the latter will be a defining aspect of our ability to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). To that end, the Roadmap put forward concrete and people-centered proposals in key thematic areas such as achieving universal connectivity, digital inclusion, digital human rights and digital capacity-building.

The Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology, in close collaboration with key partners of the Roadmap implementation, is organizing this side event to the STI Forum 2021 with the objective to update on and maintain momentum in the implementation of the Roadmap in the context of ongoing efforts towards achieving the SDGs.

The event will inform attendees on the progress of implementation of the Secretary-General's Roadmap for Digital Cooperation, and on the work of the United Nations on digital cooperation, particularly in responding to COVID-19, achieving the SDGs, and promoting digital inclusion.

The event will follow the open and multi-stakeholder format of the United Nations digital cooperation work, featuring an interactive panel representing different stakeholder perspectives, and will be moderated by the Office of the Envoy on Technology. The event will also serve as a link between the discussions at the President of the General Assembly’s High-Level Thematic Debate on Digital Connectivity and Cooperation on 27 April 2021, as well as other digital related developments in follow-up to the Roadmap, and the relevant work of the STI Forum and its participants.

Programme

Welcome introduction by H.E. Ambassador Mohammad Koba, Chargé d’Affaires, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia to the United Nations

Video - Highlights of United Nations General Assembly 2020 Side Event 'Action Today for Future Generations'

Panel discussion

• Ms Maria-Francesca Spatolisano, Assistant-Secretary-General and Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the Envoy on Technology
• Mr Vint Cerf, Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist, Google
• Ms Nnenna Nwakanma, Director, Chief Web Advocate, Web Foundation
• Ms Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director, Development Bureau, International Telecommunication Union (ITU)

Q&A interaction between participants and panel

Closing remarks by Ms Maria-Francesca Spatolisano, Assistant-Secretary-General and Officer-in-Charge of the Office of the Envoy on Technology