Sustainable development assumes a fundamental transition to a new economic paradigm, built on an inclusive, holistic and a long-term view of the economic well-being that should be achieved through higher levels of economic production, inclusive and sustainable industrialization, economic diversification and technological upgrading. Such a fundamental transition requires a series of connected transformations of socio-technical and economic systems, requires an urgent redirection of finance, markets, and governance towards an inclusive and value-creating economy that leaves none behind. Innovation plays a key role in facilitating this transition and achieving many, if not all the SDGs. Yet its potential impact hasn’t been fully internalized and operationalized neither at the international level, where more concerted efforts are needed to close the technology divide that persists between countries nor at the national level where very a few countries have linked innovation and
sustainable development strategies. Policy experts indicate clear conceptual and implementation gaps (TIPC,2018)in respect to bringing innovation policy to the heart of the sustainability-driven transformation and underscore the need of the concerted action at all levels to deliver progress on the global development agenda and national development strategies.
Particular attention today is paid to “frontier technologies” which can facilitate a rapid technological change needed to implement the 2030 Agenda missioned to leave none behind. Such technologies include big data; the Internet of things; machine learning; artificial intelligence; robotics; blockchain; three-dimensional printing; biotechnology; nanotechnology; virtual and augmented reality; renewable energy technologies; and satellite and drone technologies.
Frontier technologies, when properly deployed and managed, may bring multiple societal benefits including a better quality of life and improved access to education, finance, healthcare; more efficient use of natural, financial and human capital; improved social inclusion; new sources of employment, higher wages. At the macrolevel, frontier technologies promise to significantly support the structural transformation of societies and economies, economic diversification, higher levels of productivity and competitiveness; substitution environmentally costly modes of production with more sustainable ones; improved food security and nutrition; and enable access to new markets and opportunities etc. (UNCTAD,2018; UN 2019;UNGA Resolution 72/242;UN E/CN.16/2019/2). At the same time, the transcendental nature of these technologies, their ability to overcome sectoral, legal, ethical, geographic boundaries, disrupt industries, require a rigorous assessment, involving all stakeholders, to ensure that the frontier technologies (i) do deliver for sustainable development, (ii) don’t lead to concentration of technologies and wealth in a few hangs (iii) don’t result in new technological and socio-economic divides between and within the countries; (iv) don’t produce the adverse effects on the integrity of human, animal and plant life. The stakes are high and require a multi-stakeholder approach and cooperation.
International cooperation and inclusive multilateralism have a significant role to play in the transfer of frontier technologies, capacity building, ensuring sufficient policy space for domestic ingenious innovation (UN, 2018); articulating coherent pro-frontier technology policies and policy responses to the risks. In 2011 the UN admitted that the global IPR regime, traditional bilateral and regional international trade agreements (RTAs) and international investment agreements (IIAs) have had restrictive effects on domestic policy space and innovation (UN, 2011). A common and shared vision of how to deploy international regimes for good is needed (UN, 2018) As for regional and international collaboration in frontier technologies, they can take many forms, including North–South, South–South and triangular cooperation, initiatives by academic, technical, business and civil society communities and United Nations system-wide, collaborative technology development, capacity building and policy research (UN E/CN.16/2019/2)
At the nationale level, a number of countries have already developed their policies for specific frontier technologies. In the Asia- Pacific region China, Japan and the Republic of Korea have developed strategies on artificial intelligence, and the Republic of Korea was the first country in the world to develop a tax on robots. Countries including Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea and Singapore are developing road maps, plans, and standards for the Internet of things. Most Arab countries already have science, technology and innovation strategies (i.e. Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates). In addition, Morocco and Tunisia have developed more specialized digital strategies, Qatar and Sudan have smart strategies, the United Arab Emirates has an artificial intelligence strategy, and several countries in the region have launched open data initiatives (Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and the United Arab Emirates). (UN E/CN.16/2019/2)
The tangibility of impact of the frontier technologies and the policies, facilitating their development and deployment on sustainable development, depends upon such factors as level of digitalization and connectivity, quality of physical infrastructure, human skills and capabilities to deploy and manage such technologies, ability to harness their potential for developmental needs and align them with the developmental priorities and programs. Fulfilling these conditions require sound and innovative models of governance both global and national.
The UN indicated where the international community needs to advance its collective understanding of how to steer new and emerging technologies in ways that leave no one behind. Progress is needed in: (a) conceptualizing international technology assessment and foresight, formal processes for informing the governance of innovation and research and (b) developing an inclusive global discourse, from a developmental perspective, about the normative aspects of rapid technological change to guide global technology assessment and foresight. (UN E/CN.16/2019/2)
