The second annual Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals (STI Forum) will be held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, on May 15 and 16, 2017.

In September of 2015, the 193 countries of the United Nations adopted a new set of goals that are designed to achieve sustainable development for everyone globally by the year 2030. The ‘2030 Agenda’ contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are designed to shape the global efforts for development until 2030. This year the focus will be on just six SDGs:

End poverty in all its forms everywhere

End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

The second Call for Innovations was launched for the sharing of innovations that provide solutions targeted to these six SDGs. Innovators from around the world were invited to submit their scientific and technological solutions to the challenges posed by the six SDGs.

The Call for Innovations is now closed. More than 110 inspiring innovations from all the globe were submitted through the Global Innovations Exchange platform.

The following outstanding innovators were selected to attend the STI Forum 2017 at UNHQ and showcase their solutions:

Featured innovations for the second STI Forum

• Missing Maps: crowdsourcing digital map creation
• Babajob: Informal Sector Jobs Marketplace
• Virtual Farmers Market
• doctHERs
• Virtual Water Prospecting Program to locate naturally desalinated self-recharging & self-replenishing Water Sources
• Ignitia
• Farmer Query System
• OMOMI
• Mobilized Construction
• Paper Airplanes
• JokkoSante, pharmacy community
• CodePhil: Digital Literacy in Rural Philippines for Sustainable Livelihoods & Community Resilience

Background

The annual STI Forum is a core element of the Technology Facilitation Mechanism negotiated and agreed by the UN member States in 2015. The outcome of the STI Forum feeds into the annual High-Level Political forum (HLPF) which is the annual meeting of UN member States charged with review of implementation of the SDGs until 2030.

STI Forum 2016 – Call for Innovations

The first such Call for Innovations was held for the STI Forum 2016, and the below list of innovators were selected to showcase inspiring solutions to the SDGs. Their representatives were invited to attend the inaugural STI Forum 2016 at UN Headquarters in New York, and to present their innovations at a Special Event:

Adaptive Learning Program

Agriworks Mobile Irrigation System

Clean Fuel from Agricultural Waste and Energy-Saving Cookstoves

Dispensers from Safe Water

JANMA Clean Birth Kit

LAWIN Forest and Biodiversity Protection System

Lumkani Fire Detection

Naya Jeevan

Reducing Milk Spoilage Through Solar Powered Milk Chilling in Rural India

Social Register of Mauritius

Surehatch Incubators

Women Originated Media Entrepreneurship Network (WOMEN)

Events

On 17 May 2017, building on the Multi-Stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals, the President of the General Assembly will convene a High-Level Event on Innovation and Connectivity. Leading innovators from the major corporations of the world will interact with Member States on how emerging technologies can transform efforts aimed at the successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda.

High-Level Event on Innovation (May 17)