Welcome to the United Nations
(How can we promote Industrial development, innovation and sustainable infrastructure for shifting gears towards recovery, resilience and advancing the SDGs.)
SDG 9 focuses on building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialization and fostering innovation which are core elements of economic processes and structural transformation with potential synergies across the SDGs. SDG 9 targets including manufacturing value added (MVA) per capita and mobile broadband access have seen significant, though uneven, progress since 2015. Achievement of SDG 9 can be in sight, given recovery is broader based and developing regions and LDCs can catch up. Advances on SDG 9 today must take place against a much more challenging landscape than in the early years of SDG implementation. The COVID-19 pandemic caused economies to shut down and, for several months, multiple industries came to a standstill. Global supply chain disruptions continue to disrupt the recovery of industries and contribute to price increases. High borrowing costs and precarious debt situations in many developing countries have constrained infrastructure development and investment. On the ground, many promising innovations are unable to reach scale due to lack of finances. The kinds of transformational change needed to achieve the SDGs, in climate mitigation and adaptation, in green energy, green industries, sustainable and resilient infrastructure and more will depend on efforts to identify promising ways forward on SDG 9.
This session will examine, how, in the challenging times that we face, innovation, industry and infrastructure, the pillars of SDG 9, can provide a bedrock for the acceleration of SDG progress and realization of the 2030 Agenda. Recent evidence shows that countries with stronger manufacturing systems have weathered crises better, as manufacturing industries maintain crucial access to critical goods, they supply goods to tackle the emergency itself, such as PPEs during COVID-19, and by providing a strong base for economic recovery. Climate resilient infrastructure is increasingly important, and the COVID-19 pandemic provided an important reminder of the importance of digital connectivity to the implementation of the SDGs. This session will also examine how the potential of resilient infrastructure and digital technologies to drive innovation and development can be harnessed to the fullest.
Accelerating progress on the 2030 Agenda will depend on an integrated approach to eradicating poverty and hunger together with decarbonization, sustainable consumption and production, preservation of the global environmental commons. SDG 9 can generate synergies with all of these with the right mix of actions and investments. This session will explore how progress on SDG 9 can be balanced and coherent with other SDGs and targets.
Proposed guiding questions:
- How can we promote industrial development, innovation and sustainable and resilient infrastructure for shifting gears towards recovery, resilience and advancing the SDGs, in the face of recent multiple crises?
- How can industrial development be fostered to achieve sustained economic development, poverty and inequality reduction while serving the imperatives of decarbonization, sustainable production and consumption and restoring the health of the global environmental commons?
- How can countries use policy tools to facilitate financing for sustainable industrial transformation, sustainable and resilient infrastructure and to scale up research and development? What role can multilateral cooperation play in maximizing the efficacy of these policies?
- How can industrialization, innovation and infrastructure be more inclusive of the needs of women and small-scale enterprises, as well as countries with specific needs, such as LDCs, LLDCs, SIDS and disaster-prone countries?
- What are youth’s priorities and challenges pertaining to SDG 9? What skills are needed for accelerating the achievement of SDG 9? How can we ensure that youth have adequate opportunities to acquire these skills in developing countries, and be impactful leaders in the achievement of SDG 9?
Chair:
- H.E. Mr. Albert Ranganai Chimbindi,Vice President of ECOSOC (Zimbabwe) (3:00 PM-4:30 PM)
- H.E. Ms. Paula Narváez, Vice President of ECOSOC (Chile) (4:30 PM-6:00 PM)
Highlight:
Highlights of the report of the Secretary-General (special edition) on progress towards the SDGs – SDG 9 on industry, innovation and infrastructure
- Ms. Faryal Ahmed, Statistics Division of UN DESA
Interactive panel discussion
Moderator:
- Ms. Jan Beagle, Director-General of the International Development Law Organization (IDLO)
Panelists:
- Mr. Norichika Kanie, Professor at the Graduate School of Media Governance, Keio University, Japan, Member of the Independent Group of Scientists writing the Global Sustainable Development Report
- Ms. Shala Naimi, Senior Program Manager of Google
- Mr. Axel Berger, Deputy Director (interim), German Institute of Development and Sustainability
- Ms.Sabrina Atwine, CEO of Nimarungi, young entrepreneur, Uganda
Lead Discussant:
- Mr. Nagesh Kumar, Director of Indian Institute for Studies in Industrial Development
Interventions of Ministers and other participants (3 minutes each)
