The Global Solutions Summit (GSS) will convene at the United Nations in New York City on May 13, 2019. GSS 2019, which is supported by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development, and the UN Office of Partnerships, is based on the premise that R&D is only the first step in the long road from the lab to the SDGs. The indispensable next step is transforming the fruits of these scientific discoveries into radically affordable products and services and getting them into the hands of the hundreds of millions of people in tens of thousands of urban and rural communities in dozens of countries. This deployment process is the domain of business models, supply chains, community organizing, product marketing, and finance. It is the purview of entrepreneurs, community leaders, equipment vendors, logistics experts, payment mechanisms, finance for social enterprises and consumers, government officials, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, SMEs, large corporations, and local universities who comprise the deployment ecosystem. GSS 2019 will explore how we can build a more effective and efficient deployment ecosystem – one that enables social enterprises, SMEs, NGOs, and foundations to reach more people in the countries where they are already working and transfer their deployment know-how to more countries at a pace and on a scale commensurate with the goal of achieving the SDGs by 2030. Speakers will be thoughtful doers -- i.e., women and men who are actively working in the field to overcome these deployment challenges – who will explain what they have done, how they did it, what went right and what went wrong, and where gaps or broken circuits exist in the deployment ecosystem.

Please circulate this announcement to friends and colleagues. Registration is free and open to all interested participants. Registration information, a Background Discussion Paper, and Summit Agenda are available on the Summit website.

Contact: Alfred Watkins at alfred.watkins07@gmail.com