If the benefits of increased Internet connectivity are to be realized, it is important that all actors, including Member States, the United Nations system, the private sector and other stakeholders, promote open-source software, open data, open artificial intelligence models, open standards and open content that adhere to privacy and other applicable international and domestic laws, standards and best practices and do no harm.

Member States, the United Nations and other stakeholders can amplify these global initiatives by deploying digital public goods as part of their immediate efforts to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic and, in the future, as part of their approaches to achieving the Goals.

While discussions on the different digital architecture models proposed by the Panel are ongoing among stakeholders, the following ideas have emerged with a view to making the Internet Governance Forum more responsive and relevant to current digital issues. These include: (a) Creating a strategic and empowered multi-stakeholder high-level body, building on the experience of the existing multi-stakeholder advisory group, which would address urgent issues, coordinate follow-up action on Forum discussions and relay proposed policy approaches and recommendations from the Forum to the appropriate normative and decision-making forums; (b) Having a more focused agenda for the Forum based on a limited number of strategic policy issues; (c) Establishing a high-level segment and ministerial or parliamentarian tracks, ensuring more actionable outcomes; (d) Forging stronger links among the global Forum and its regional, national, subregional and youth initiatives; (e) Better integrating programme and intersessional policy development work to support other priority areas outlined in the present report; (f) Addressing the long-term sustainability of the Forum and the resources necessary for increased participation, through an innovative and viable fundraising strategy, as promoted by the round table; (g) Enhancing the visibility of the Forum, including through a stronger corporate identity and improved reporting to other United Nations entities. While consultations on digital architecture models will continue in the coming months, I support these measures to enhance the Forum and intend to implement them as appropriate.

In this unprecedented moment, the power, promise and peril of digital technology cannot be underestimated. Coming together will allow the international community to ensure that technology is harnessed for good, seek the opportunity to manage its impact and ensure that it presents a level playing field for all. Future generations will judge whether the present generation seized the opportunities presented by the age of digital interdependence. The time to act is now.

The latest IPCC report warns of the irreversible impacts of global warming. And evidence suggests that to accelerate a just, green, and resilient climate transition, major coordinated action must happen. To accelerate structural transformations, UNDP seeks proven digital solutions that can help usher in greater climate responses at scale and speed. We also recognize that there are potential risks to digital technology – misinformation, data privacy, cybersecurity – and that solutions should also address the needs of the most vulnerable and mitigate the tendency for digital to reflect and amplify existing inequalities.

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The #Climate Challenge

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The UNDP Nature, Climate, and Energy team works in 146 countries across over 700 projects and we know not one size fits all, so in this sense we are cognizant that localized solutions are critical.  As natural environment, climate change and the need for adaptation, mitigation and resiliency responses contrast according to context, we are expanding our digital portfolio of tools that address the dual nature and climate crises. Specifically, our integrated support to governments is delivered across key nexus areas, like sustainable cities, plastics and zero waste, energy, and agriculture, food, and water. We are creating a Digital Solutions Catalogue of existing tools that can support countries and governments to address various climate and nature challenges.

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The Global #Climate Challenge is seeking ‘ready-to-scale’ digital solutions that can be used by UNDP and its partners to bridge digital divides and last mile challenges. Solutions should answer the broad question: How might we use #tech4good to accelerate a global transition to a sustainable future, contributing to green recovery that helps the world's most vulnerable escape poverty and build resilience?

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Types of digital solutions we are looking for:

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Digital tools that contribute to building credibility and enhance green finance.

Digital tools that help Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) of greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental and sustainable development benefits based on internationally approved methodologies.

Digital tools that monitor and detect changes in the natural environment, such as illegal logging activities in protected areas, or wildlife monitoring using new data sources.

Open algorithms for carbon credit ledgers.

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Data driven solutions for SMART behavior change and decision making.

Digital tools that support sustainable transport, such as e-fleet, electric car charging port planning, more energy efficient public transport.  

IoT, ML/AI, remote sensing digital solutions that can collect, store, and verify sustainability data for supply chain traceability at the last mile.

Open-source algorithms to surface data that can feed into national energy access planning or sector coordination, especially in data scarce areas.

Software as a service climate risk analysis models and tools for climate risk-informed decision making and adaptation planning.

Digital tools that enable the mapping of plastic waste and other pollutants, using citizen science, AI and other novel methodologies.

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Digital tools and activities that empower local action for nature and climate.

Digital tools for civil society engagement and awareness raising.

Digital tools that support farmers in joining public engagement opportunities, build capacities, utilize climate information, or find market opportunities  

Digital tools that support the activation of green markets, resilient livelihoods, employment, transitions to renewable energy, and women’s economic empowerment.

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A better future for all depends on economies built on gender equality, social justice, and environmental sustainability. The COVID-19 pandemic has reversed critical gains in women’s labor force participation and poverty reduction, exacerbating pre-existing structural inequalities. UNDP believes this will be one of the biggest challenges of our generation, and we have to build back better for the sake of generations of women to come. Through the new Gender Equality Strategy 2022-2025, UNDP will continue contributing to women’s economic empowerment, employment, and access to resources; and supporting countries to bridge the structural barriers in economics that keep women from their full potential. Harnessing the potential of digital technologies for gender equality can be a powerful way to achieve both purposes.

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The #WomenEconomicCatalyst Challenge

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This Digital X Open Challenge is calling for ‘ready-to-scale’ digital solutions that UNDP can use to support women’s economic empowerment and address structural barriers preventing it, as well as increase women’s income, promote sustainable livelihoods for women, strengthen women-owned MSMEs impacted by the crisis, and boost female-led start-ups. We are looking to put together a portfolio of solutions leveraging digital technologies to boost women’s economic empowerment and generate sustainable livelihoods in order to address gender inequalities in various development and crisis contexts.

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The Global #WomenEconomicCatalyst Challenge is seeking ‘ready-to-scale’ digital solutions that can be used by UNDP and its partners to accelerate women’s economic empowerment and generate sustainable livelihoods and try to answer the broad question: How might we use#tech4good to include more women in the digital economy?

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Types of digital solutions we are looking for:

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Equip women and girls with skills to compete in the digital economy (e.g. foundational digital skills training and/or support to female digital entrepreneurs and IT professionals).  

Expand women’s access to new markets such as e-markets, traceability blockchain technologies, digital branding, social media uptake, etc.  

Boost women-led digital start-ups with incubation, acceleration, mentorship, access to capital, and business development services.

Amplify women’s access to financing and accelerate digital finance innovations that help unlock, align, or redirect financial flows toward women’s economic empowerment such as digital identity to access financial services, electronic payments, financial e-literacy, mobile money, and wallets, etc.  

Increase women’s access to decent work opportunities in the gig economy, securing access to social protection, formalized contracts, and fair wages.

Foster the digital transformation of women-led MSMEs, leveraging digital technologies for a more efficient administration/operation, and/or the development of improved products or service delivery, including those aimed at supporting the digitalization and automation of processes and operations, manufacturing techniques, etc.

Boost rural business endeavors and rural value chain development, including solutions to improve the administration/operation of rural associations/cooperatives (e.g. digitally enabled agriculture precision, traceability blockchain technologies, data applications).  

Expand women’s access to digitally enabled clean energy solutions or develop women-led business endeavors connected to energy supply.  

Amplify the access of women to internet connectivity, including mobile connectivity, WiFi hotspots, broadband, satellite, ISDN and others.

Tackle structural inequalities preventing women’s economic empowerment, including the unequal distribution of unpaid care work, gender-based violence, discriminatory social norms, and more.

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In the year since it first launched, UNDP’s Digital X programme has created the opportunity for ten ambitious projects to scale in terms of both impact and geographical reach. Now, with continued funding by the Government of Japan, Digital X will build on that success to launch a new Digital X ‘Partnerships for Scale Programme’ that brings proven, ready-to-scale digital solutions to UNDP and our partners. Now through 31st May, teams from around the world are invited to apply to be featured in the Digital X Solutions Catalogue and receive up to $100,000 in financial support to scale.

This year’s programme builds on two long-standing goals. From its first iteration, the primary focus of Digital X has been to take proven digital innovations and scale them, with the goal of making UNDP more efficient and effective in delivering its mandate. The secondary focus is to foster for UNDP and its government partners the capacity to widely leverage the plethora of ready-to-scale digital tools at their disposal, rather than reinvent the wheel.

“The first round of Digital X helped us identify some of the reasons why so many digital solutions that we create at UNDP struggle to gain the meaningful impact we desire,” says Mike Rios, Digital Innovation and Scaling Specialist at the Chief Digital Office. “However, the experience also gave us hope, because we learned that there are a lot of proven digital solutions that are out there waiting to be discovered. The current Digital X challenge tries to correct this disconnect between the digital needs we have and the solutions that already exist.”

In preparation for this year’s challenge, the Digital X team worked with UNDP’s Global Policy Network to conduct a systematic scan of digital needs at country level. These were synthesised into a series of Digital X Global Challenges that include the thematic areas of Health, Crisis Response, Climate, Inclusive Growth and Gender.

All UN agencies, social enterprises, nonprofits, and universities with digital solutions can apply. Applicants who pass the vetting process will be featured in a Digital X Solutions Catalogue, which will be shared with UNDP offices, government partners, and UN agencies worldwide. Bespoke in-kind support will be available for teams implementing selected digital solutions, including support from the Chief Digital Office, optional mentorship, and connections to the ever expanding Digital X Network.

To be considered for selection, a digital solution must:

be ready-to-scale (i.e. has a long-term owner, is sustainable, passes a tech review for safety, has scaled widely with target populations in at least one country, and has progressed past the idea or concept phase);

have a clear problem statement and unique value proposition;

have a demonstrated impact; and

demonstrate a commitment to ‘do no harm’ and embed data privacy considerations.

For full details on applying to a Digital X Global Challenge, and to be featured in the Solutions Catalogue or be eligible for funding, go to digitalx.undp.org

Previous Digital X winners have gone on to achieve great impact. Last year’s Digital X cohort included a joint project between UNDP Uganda and African e-commerce giant Jumia to connect informal market vendors with customers online. Only a few weeks after the project was launched at five markets in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, two more markets were eager to get involved. Digital X also helped a UNDP-funded jobs matching platform in Bangladesh scale to operating in Somalia, where 35% of young people between the ages of 20 and 25 are looking for work.

Digital X is a Partnerships for Scale Programme developed by UNDP Chief Digital Office to find, match, and scale proven and innovative digital solutions around the world.

Why apply to Digital X?

Teams that are selected into the Digital X Solutions Catalogue, receive:

Introductions to UNDP teams and governments in the 170 countries where UNDP operates.

Opportunity to partner with UNDP teams on projects of up to USD 100,000 with adhoc mentoring support.