Organized by the Government of Mongolia, International Think Tank for LLDCs and ESCAP

“We never had a more opportune moment. Can we work together better to seize this opportunity of a lifetime within the lifetime of the opportunity?” Ms. Tiziana Bonapace, Director of Information and Communications Technology and Disaster Risk Reduction Division at ESCAP, highlighted the importance of consistent investments in ICT infrastructure and multilateral cooperation for seamless digital connectivity and digital transformation at the “Digital Almaty Forum” on 5 February 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation and underscored its importance for mitigating the economic slowdown, sustaining wellbeing, and speeding up recovery. Governments, smart policymaking, as well as regional cooperation play an essential role in helping to both enable digital transformation to occur and in facilitating access to technology.

Digital technologies including information and communication technologies (ICT) for development are cutting across many sectors. Progress on certain SDGs can be traced and correlated with ICT progress, especially in monitoring SDG 9: Infrastructure, Industrialization and Innovation, SDG 4: Quality Education and SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being, which suggests that these may be the areas with the greatest potential for leveraging ICT for sustainable development.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development recognizes that natural disasters can be an impediment to realizing the development goals. Earthquakes, landslides, floods, and droughts have detrimental impacts on overall country macroeconomic factors and further disproportionately affect the poor and marginalized groups. Therefore, it is imperative to develop multi-hazard assessments that address and map both physical and social vulnerabilities.