TECHNOLOGIES
THAT EMPOWER
THE WORLD

The United Nations has been concen- trating on achieving its ambitious Millennium Development Goals, established in 2000 to end poverty by 2015. The U.N. Commission on Science and Technology for Development, which I currently chair, is one of many organizations focusing efforts on these goals and supporting U.N. General Assembly deliberations to both assess progress made to combat poverty and to decide what follows the MDGs after 2015.

The CSTD is a subsidiary body of the U.N.

Economic and Social Council and the “ torchbearer” for science, technology, engineering, and innovation in the U.N. system. It is a multi-stakeholder forum for governments, industry, academia, and civil society to share best practices and foster cooperation between developed and developing countries.

The CSTD also coordinates the U.N. system-wide follow up to the World Summit on the Information Society, concluded in Tunis in 2005, by tracking the implementation of WSIS “Action Lines” assigned to all U.N. organizations and directed at increasing developing countries’ access to information and communications technologies and the Internet.

The International Telecommunication Union reports the Earth’s 7. 1 billion inhabitants now hold 6. 8 billion cell phone subscriptions, 2. 7 billion people are connected to the Internet, and fixed broadband costs have dropped over 80 percent since 2008.

But a “digital divide” remains, particularly
for affordable broadband access in Africa,

TECH BUZZ || GLOBAL IMPACT BY ANDREW REYNOLDS

Communication technology is critical to science and engineering in the developing world.

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING | DECEMBER 2013 | P.12

the Middle East, and
countries in Asia and
Latin America.

Supported in many cases by science, technology, and innovation policy reviews performed by the CSTD and the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development, developing countries are strengthening their national development plans and related information and communications technology and broadband strategies, enacting supporting laws and regulations, investing in infrastructure, e-programs and better data management, and concentrating on greater Internet access to increase participation and local content. These countries recognize that to compete in the modern world and to ensure sustainable employment for their citizens, they must harness information and communications technologies to foster science, technology and innovation for development and sustainable economic growth.

Research by ITU, UNCTAD, the INSEAD/
World Economic Forum, and many others
continues to amass evidence that informa-
tion and communications technologies are
powering collaborative research and educa-
tion, manufacturing, e-services, govern-
ment, and overall econom-
ic growth with previously
unimagined speed. IN-
SEAD/WEF concluded that,
between 2010 and 2011
alone, information and
communications technolo-
gies created $192 billion
of GDP impact worldwide
and over 6 million new
jobs, with 70 percent of the
economic growth and 94
percent of the jobs realized
by developing countries.

During the last decade,
the CSTD has compiled
a body of work (www.
unctad.org/en/Pages/
cstd.aspx) illustrating
how science, technol-
ogy, and engineering
have increased economic
prosperity, improved
natural resource develop-
ment, and made cities and
peri-urban communities
more sustainable and
livable. The commission
has also demonstrated that ICTs and the
Internet are enablers and force multipliers
for science, technology, and engineering
in education, research, commerce, trade,
and government. These technologies are
empowering all people—male and female,
young and old, urban and rural, rich and
poor—and engineers are leading the effort
to deliver them around the world. ME

ANDRE W W. REYNOLDS is senior advisor for space and
advanced technologies in the Office of International Communica-
tions and Information Policy at the U.S. Department of State.