6 June 6:15-7:30pm at UNHQ: "Technology Assessment Platform: Ensuring Peoples' Participation in Implementing STI Roadmaps"

We have received the following from UN-NGLS:

Technology Assessment Platform: Ensuring Peoples' Participation in Implementing Science, Technology and Innovation Roadmaps

6 June, 6:15-7:30pm

UN Headquarters - Conference Room 6

Side event for the UN Science, Technology and Innovation Forum 

Co-organized by:   

UN Non Government Liaison Service (UN NGLS)

Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC Group)

Technology Assessment Platform in Latin America (TAP-LA) 

Civil Society Group on Financing for Development (CSO FfD Group) 

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by the UN in September 2015 underlines the important role of science, technology and innovation (STI) in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Along with finance, capacity building and partnerships, STI is identified as a crucial means of implementation to achieve the 2030 Agenda with the key elements of how to operationalize outlined in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development...

The 2030 Agenda is clear on the kind of STI needed to achieve the SDGs - the "development and application of technology are climate-sensitive, respect biodiversity and are resilient" (para. 9); and STI capacities must "move towards more sustainable patterns of consumption and production" (para. 28). 

The technology cycle generally involves research and development, diffusion, transfer and deployment.  One very critical phase that is often missing, or ignored, in the technology cycle is the assessment/evaluation of the potential impacts of technologies.  To be meaningful, effective and relevant, technology assessment must involve the direct participation of communities and populations who will be potentially affected by the introduction of new technologies.

The Side Event jointly organized by UN-NGLS, ETC Group, TAP-LA and CSO FfD Group, will expound on the critical importance of participatory technology assessment in ensuring the development, transfer and deployment of environmentally sound technologies to attain the SDGs.The Side Event will provide experiences and views on the critical importance of participatory technology assessment in the development and implementation of STI Roadmaps and in ensuring that environmentally sound, culturally sensitive and economically equitable technologies are promoted to achieve the SDGs.

Programme:

H.E. Ambassador Rolando Castro Córdoba - Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the UN on the importance of Technology Assessment in STI Roadmaps

Ms. Silvia Ribeiro, Latin America Director, ETC Group on the importance of Technology Assessment in the Technology Cycle

Maria José Guazzelli, Centro Ecológico, Brazil, and TAP-LA on Participatory Technology Assessment: Experiences in Latin America

Moderator: 

Ms. Susan Alzner - Head of UN-NGLS NY Office  

The concept note for the event is available here.

More information about the UN STI Forum is available here.