This report, Unlocking Technology for the Global Goals, through an analysis of over 300 use cases of emerging technologies (such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain 5G, Internet of Things, and drones) maps the breadth of the opportunity for these technologies to make a significant contribution to the achievement of the Global Goals, tackling problems such as poverty, climate change, nature loss, and inequality. Through this analysis, the report explores: 1) the extent to which this opportunity is being realized; 2) the barriers and risks to scaling these applications; and 3) the enabling framework for unlocking this opportunity.
The report finds that 70% of the 169 targets underpinning the Global Goals could be enabled by existing Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technology applications. Particularly, these innovations were found to lead to a number of transformative charateristics, such as increasing the productivity of systems; enabling transparency and stakeholder accountability; aiding the shift to decentralized systems; supporting new models to unlock finance; and accelerating discovery from new insights to new materials. Based on current applications, 4IR technologies were found to have a high impact potential in particular for Health (Goal 3), Clean Energy (Goal 7), and Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (Goal 9).
While there is an enormous opportunity, some important barriers will need to be overcome. These include poor data access and quality, a lack of basic infrastructure, an inadequate governance and policy environment, upskilling and reskilling needs and – in particular for public goods focused solutions – a lack of viable business models and commercial incentives for scaling.
A set of enablers is needed to continually accelerate innovation and investment into new solutions that help tackle our grandest challenges, and to create viable markets for those solutions in the long term. These include responsible technology governance, leadership to mobilize commitment and standards, partnerships for collaboration and collective action, public policy and regulation for the 4IR, finance mechanisms to stimulate market solutions, breakthrough innovation, new models for democratization of data, as well as capacity development through upskilling and reskilling, and interdisciplinary talent to maximize value.