UN capacity-building programme on technology facilitation for SDGs

Introduction

Overview

UN Interagency Task Team Workstream 6 (IATT WS6) on Capacity Building in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for SDGs was formed in 2017 with the responsibility for STI for SDGs capacity building, designing and delivering training courses and workshops on STI Policy for SDGs, particularly for developing countries. The goal is to assist policymakers, public service experts, and key STI stakeholders in keeping abreast of most current approaches to STI policy design, and to enhance their ability to mobilize STI as part of strategies to achieve the SDGs.

sdg

Background

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda highlight the importance of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policies and actions for meeting the SDGs. The main instrument established by these initiatives is the Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM), as a multi-stakeholder collaborative and partnership-building mechanism to share information, experiences, best practices and policy advice. The UN Interagency Task Team on STI for SDGs (IATT) is one of the several mechanisms to operationalize the TFM.

Technology Facilitation Mechanism

Evolution and current status of IATT WS6

IATT WS6 was launched after the adoption of the SDGs by the UN’s General Assembly. A training programme was designed and elaborated from 2015 to 2017 and reviewed after the 2nd STI Forum with the completion of a mapping exercise on STI activities carried out by the TFM to identify a focus for the capacity-building activities of the working stream. Following the draft programme, two regional trainings were organized in collaboration with the UN regional economic and social commissions: UN-ESCWA for Arab States (Jordan, April 2018) and UN-ECLAC for Central and South American countries (Panama, May 2019). The UN Technology Bank for the Least Developed Countries had also planned capacity development programmes of STI Policy for the LDCs for 2020. Additional requests for training sessions were made by countries and regions since then.

In response to the global pandemic and the difficulty to convene training activities in presence, IATT WS6 adapted to the situation and delivered a series of online training sessions in 2020. With the successful delivery of the sessions and as requested by countries and regions, more similar online trainings adapted to the local contexts will be delivered in 2021.

IATT WS6 Members

IATT WS6 is open to the participation of all United Nations agencies, funds, programmes, the regional commissions of the Economic and Social Council and additional partnerships outside the UN system. IATT WS6 is currently composed of diverse entities, including among others UNCTAD, UNIDO, UNESCO, UNU-MERIT, WIPO, UNDESA, UNEP, WB, ITU, UNESCWA, UNECA, UNECLAC, UNECE, UNTBLDC and UNESCAP. IATT WS6 also collaborates closely with the 10-Member Group, a group of representatives from the civil society, the private sector, and the scientific community, created to support the TFM. Likewise involved is the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre . The IATT WS6 group meetings are held every two weeks.

The work of the IATT WS6 was coordinated by UNU-MERIT until July 2020 and now is coordinated by UNESCO and UNCTAD.

Current IATT WS6 Coordinators:

Mr. Dimo Calovski

Economist, Science, Technology and ICT Branch,UNCTAD

dimo.calovski@unctad.org

Ms. Kornelia Tzinova

Assistant Programme Specialist, Division of Science Policy and Capacity Building, UNESCO

k.tzinova@unesco.org

WS6

Announcements

Events

Organized by IATT Work Stream 6

2022

HLPF 2022 Side Event: UN-Interagency Task Team Perspectives on Capacity-Building in Science, Technology and Innovation for Achieving the SDGs, 6 July 2022, event page

2021

Training Workshop on STI for SDGs for the SADC region , 6-10 Dec 2021, event page
Training on current approaches to STI policymaking in the context of SDGs targeting Latin American countries - sub-national perspectives, online, 10-12 May 2021, event page
STI Forum 2021 side event: Capacity Building in STI for SDGs, online, 4 May 2021, event page
Training on current approaches to STI policymaking in the context of SDGs targeting Latin American countries, online, 19-21 April 2021, event page

2020

On-line Training Sessions on STI Policy and Policy Instruments for SDGs, online, 19 Nov, 26 Nov, 3 Dec 2020, event page
- Session 1-Current approaches to STI Policy making in the context of SDGs
- Session 2-Design and implementation
- Session 3- innovation and entrepreneurship

2019

Training Workshop on STI Policies for the SDGs, Panama, 6-8 May 2019

2018

2018 STI Forum, Side Event on Building capacity on STI for the SDGs, 5 June, 2018. event page
UN-IATT-WS6 Capacity Building Course on Technology for Development: Innovation Policies for SDGs in the Arab Region, Amman, Jordan, 15 -19 April 2018. event page

Statistics

UN Interagency Task Team on Capacity Building on STI for SDGs has delivered 6 series of training workshops and 3 STI-Forum side events since 2017, which benefited over 500 participants from 70 countries. These activities have achieved good gender balance, with 56% female participants and 44% male participants (Figure 1). Figure 2 shows the gender percentage of participants per region. (information updated in May 2022)

Figure 1 The percentage of participants’ gender

Figure 2 The percentage of participants’ gender per region

Courses

1. Science, technology and innovation (STI) policy and policy instruments for SDGs course webpage

Session 1Current approaches to STI Policy making in the context of SDGs
Session 2 STI Policy instruments: Design and implementation
Session 3 Innovation and entrepreneurship

2. Science, technology and innovation (STI) policy and policy instruments for SDGs, for Latin American countries (in Spanish) course webpage

Taller de capacitación para América Latina sobre políticas e instrumentos de política en Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación para los ODS

Enfoques actuales en formulación de políticas de CTI en el contexto de los ODS

Instrumentos de política de CTI

Fomento de la innovación y emprendimiento

3. On-line training sessions on STI policy and policy instruments for SDGs for the SADC region, course webpage

Session 1: Current approaches to STI policy making
Session 2: STI policy instruments design
Session 3: Innovation and entrepreneurship
Session 4: Implementation of STI policy instruments
Session 5: Monitoring and evaluation of STI policies

If you have questions and suggestions to our courses, or anything that you would like to share with us, please contact Ms. Zengmei Wang (ze.wang@unesco.org)

Reports and resources

UN IATT WS6 Progress Report

2021 Progress report: UN IATT Workstream 6 Capacity Building in STI for SDGs link

STI Reports and Training Resources

UN-IATT and UNIDO Booklet- Science, Technology and Innovation for Achieving the SDGs: Guidelines for Policy Formulation, English version, Spanish version, 2022