Background
Science, technology, and innovation (STI), including engineering as well as the social sciences and the humanities plays a crucial role for sustainable development. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, formally adopted in September 2015 with its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets, is now a universal calls for action by all countries as part of their inclusive economic growth and social development while protecting the planet.
It recognizes the need to mobilize science, engineering, technology and innovation (SETI) at multiple levels and across disciplines to gather or create the necessary knowledge and thus lay the foundations for practices to address global challenges today and in the future.
Countries in Asia and the Pacific has been changing with rapid industrialization and poverty reduction, and it is expected that 90% of global growth in next 10-15 years will happen outside the developed world.
It is therefore important that the countries from Asia and the Pacific increase national efforts in implementation; countries from the region should implement policies in line with the SDGs, and development plans should be framed around the principles of universality and sustainable development. In implementation of global goals, lessons learnt should be drawn from previous experiences.
UNESCO Office Jakarta, as a regional bureau for science in the Asia and the Pacific has been working on positioning the global development agenda at the highest level In Asia and the Pacific and therefore implemented the project to Facilitate in Accelerating Science and Technology in the region known as AP-FAST.
The project aims at positioning AP-FAST as a major tool to address the Science & Technology challenges that governments of Asia and the Pacific region may be facing in implementing the 17 goals and related targets defined in the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.
Built on the development expectations of the region, the project will bring together high level experts to discuss and develop tools and policies on scientific knowledge-sharing to guide governments of the region in incorporating the SDGs into their development plans and implementing them.
As part of the project activities, a regional workshop will be held to analyse the incorporation of the SDGs into national development plans and to identify effective and inclusive means for the use of SETI for implementing the SDGs. The workshop will focus on UNESCO programmes among other IHP, MAB, IOC, GeoParks, DRR and Climate Change.
Objectives
The objectives of the Regional Workshop are:
- Bring UNESCO’s programmes experts and Asia Pacific SETI experts together to open dialogue on the role of SETI in SDG in the region.
- Identify strengths, challenges, and opportunities of SETI capacities in the region to support SDG implementation at national level as well as to support regional cooperation with focus on UNESCO programme (IHP, MAB, IOC, GeoParks, DRR and Climate Change).
- Identify initiatives to optimize the leverage of SETI for SDG implementation in the national development plan in the region with focus on UNESCO’s programme.
- To build network of Asia Pacific SETI experts for AP-FAST
Outputs
The workshop is expected to produce report/proceeding on:
- Perspective of SETI for SDG in the region focus on UNESCO programmes;
- Identification of SETI capacity in the region to support SDG.
- Recommendation on how to accelerate SETI to foster the implementation of SDG in the region in line with UNESCO programmes.
Resources
PowerPoint Presentations
- Launching of AP-FAST
- Role of SETI to Deliver UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
- The Digital HealthCare Journey
- Lessons Learnt and Insights on the Use of Sustainability Science in Support to the Implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals in Davao, Philippines
- Assessment of Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation (SETI) needed to accelerate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) targets and indicators
- Sustainable Development Goals of Bangladesh
- Cambodia Country Report
- Assessment Report on Pakistan’s National Action Plan related to SDG and Capacity in Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovative to Support SDG
- Sustainable Development Goals in the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022
- Timor-Leste National Action Plan to Accelerate Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation
- APCE – UNESCO Contribution in Implementing SDGs Target and Indicator Regarding Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation (SETI)
- International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology under the Auspices of UNESCO: how can we contribute to the implementation of SDGs?
- Contribution of Biosphere Reserve Toward Achieving Sustainable Development Goals
- UNESCO IHP Programme’s Challenges in relation to SDGs and SETI
- Regional Bureau for Science in Asia and the Pacific: Science Support for Disaster Risk Reduction
- National Oceans Policy for Timor‐Leste: Opportunity and Challenge for Implementation Plan
- Education for Sustainable Development Implementation towards Education 2030
- Associação Nacional Dos Engenheiros De Timor‐Leste (ANETL)
- Discussions
- Closing Report
