2022 Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) Forum Youth Engagement Opportunities
The seventh annual Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs (STI Forum) will be held from 5 to 6 May 2022. The STI Forum will comprise an opening and a closing, a Ministerial Session, six Thematic Sessions, three Special Events, as well as several Pre-events and Roundtables. The Forum will also feature a virtual Exhibit and selected Side Events.
Dates: 5-6 May 2022
Hybrid Event, based in New York City, US
Background of the STI Forum
The STI Forum is one of three components of the Technology Facilitation Mechanism (TFM), which was mandated by the Addis Ababa Action Agenda and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in order to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The President of ECOSOC convenes the STI forum once a year to discuss science, technology and innovation cooperation around thematic areas for the implementation of the SDGs. The Forum will provide inputs for the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) to be held from Tuesday, 5 July, to Thursday, 7 July, and from Monday, 11 July, to Friday, 15 July 2022. As in previous years, the theme of the STI forum would mirror that of the HLPF, with a focus on the role and contribution of STI.
The 7th annual collaborative Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs is expected to:
Provide a venue for facilitating interaction, matchmaking and the establishment of networks between relevant stakeholders and multi-stakeholder partnerships.
Identify and examine technology needs and gaps, including with regard to scientific cooperation, innovation and capacity-building.
Facilitate development, transfer and dissemination of relevant technologies for the sustainable development goals.
STI Forum 2022
Member State Co-Chairs: Ukraine and Tanzania
UN Agency Co-Chairs: UN DESA & UNCTAD
The 7th STI Forum will provide inputs for the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development in 2022. This year's theme will focus on “Science, technology, and innovation for building back better from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) while advancing the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. Additional sessions of the STI Forum include:
Science, technology and innovation at the COVID19 conjuncture
Innovations in education: towards quality access and common good
Global, national and local innovation ecosystems
Global digital public goods, digitalization, artificial intelligence, and connecting the world by 2030
Emerging carbon dioxide removal technologies for addressing climate change
Delivering on the SDGs: Next steps for the TFM and its partners
Additional Cross-Cutting Sessions include:
Lessons from national science-policy advice
Emerging science, frontier technologies, and the SDGs – perspectives from UN system and science and technology communities
Science and technology futures and scenarios for the SDGs and beyond: what is possible and what does it take?
MGCY Members at the 2018 STI Forum
Opportunities to Engage in the Forum and Important Deadlines
Opportunities to engage include: 1. Attend the STI Forum - Register on Whova Platform; 2. Attend MGCY Side Events (at Midday ET on Thursday, May 5th and Friday, May 6th); 3. Provide input to MGCY’s two assigned Plenary Session Interventions
Attend the STI Forum - Register on Whova Platform
Are you a young scientist, engineer, or practitioner? Are you interested in learning about how science, technology and innovation can contribute to sustainable development?
Please register using this link if you are interested in attending the 7th Annual STI Forum:
Express interest in attending the STI Forum with the MGCY - HERE
Formally register with the UN to attend the Forum as part of the MGCY - HERE
The meetings (opening/closing, Ministerial session and Thematic sessions) and special events will be held in a hybrid format and live streamed both on UN WebTV and the Whova platform. All other meetings (Roundtables, pre-events, exhibit, and side events) will only be available on the Whova platform.
MGCY will be facilitating youth participation in the Forum, as we have done for the previous forums, so it is important that you register with both the MGCY and the UN. MGCY coordination includes online/offline dialogues, a capacity building workshop / preparatory meeting ahead of the Forum (Date and time to be determined) and coordinating collective youth activities at the Forum itself and as part of its follow-up.
Once you are registered with both the MGCY and the UN, we will be following up with further information about how to engage in the 2022 STI Forum as part of the MGCY.
Please let us know if you have any questions at spiteam@unmgcy.org.
2. MGCY Side Events
The MGCY’s SPI Platform will be holding two side events during the 2022 STI Forum on May 5th at noon ET and on May 6th at noon ET.
5 May 2022
Format: Virtual.
Time: 12 pm ET, May 5, 2022
Hosted by MGCY-SPI Platform and UNSD, via Zoom with a duration of 75 minutes. Registration link HERE.
This side event will provide a space for national statistics authorities, private sector, civil society and youth speakers to engage in a dialogue on how data both traditional and big data sources can be used to assess the vulnerability of households derived from the COVID-19 pandemic and how multi-stakeholder partnerships can help design innovative solutions that strengthen local capacities.
2. 6 May 2022
Session: Preparing the Future Engineering Workforce to Achieve the SDGs Through Multi-Stakeholder Engagement.
Format: Virtual.
Time: 12 pm ET, May 6, 2022
Hosted by MGCY-SPI Platform and Engineering for Change, via Zoom with a duration of 90 minutes. Registration link HERE.
This side event will explore how to bridge the gaps between private sector, academia and civil society to better prepare young engineers for careers in sustainable development. This side event will provide space for a range of stakeholders to showcase educational opportunities or workforce development programs that help early-career engineers align their work with the Sustainable Development Goals. Focus will be on how to better create a multi-stakeholder ecosystem that shifts away from technocratic approaches and towards designing to ethical, socially responsible, and context-appropriate sustainable solutions.
3. Plenary Session Interventions
MGCY has had two of our members accepted to share interventions at the following thematic sessions:
Thematic Session 3: Global, national, and local innovation ecosystems
Google Form to Provide Input on Plenary Session Interventions
Since these members will be speaking on behalf of MGCY, you as an MGCY member have the opportunity to provide input to the interventions for each session. These can include suggested speaking topics, perspectives, viewpoints or pertinent examples. To provide any such input, please fill out this Google form.
Please note that while all inputs will be considered for inclusion, word limits imposed on interventions by the organizers mean that some member suggestions may not all be included in the interventions. For the 2021 STI Forum, interventions to be spoken during the session were limited to 300 words, but interveners had the opportunity to submit longer versions of their intervention up to 700 words for inclusion on the session webpage following the event, so if suggestions are not spoken by our MGCY representatives, they may still be included in the longer written intervention.
The STI Forum organizers have requested that all interventions to be spoken during the event be shared with them by Tuesday, May 3rd, at the latest for interpreters to prepare their translations of the intervention in advance. If you would like to provide inputs, please therefore share them with us using the above google form by Sunday, May 1st, if possible.
We hope that you will join us in attending the seventh annual Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the SDGs, including our side events, and share any inputs you wish to make to MGCY’s interventions to Thematic sessions 3 and 4.