Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development

A/RES/78/160View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the General Assembly, under agenda item 19aScience, technology and innovation for sustainable development, published in 2023.

What other versions does this mandate have?

4 versions · 2020–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/RES/80/147

2025A/RES/80/147Science, technology and innovation for sustainable developmentLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/RES/78/160Science, technology and innovation for sustainable developmentCompare with previous version
2022A/RES/76/213Science, technology and innovation for sustainable developmentCompare with previous version
2020A/RES/74/229Science, technology and innovation for sustainable development

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

2 entities

A dot marks an entity citing this document in its “Mandates and background” narrative rather than only its Legislative mandates list. Many do both.

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

6 topics

Developing Countries Science and Technology Science and Technology Policy Sustainable Development Technological Innovations Technology Transfer

Which reports were submitted under this mandate?

1 report of the Secretary-General submitted under this mandate, 2025.

2025A/80/221Science, technology and innovation for sustainable development report of the Secretary-General

Identified automatically from the metadata in each report’s UN Digital Library catalogue record.

What does this mandate say?

46 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms its commitments made in the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development on, inter alia, science, technology and innovation, as an important action area for sustainable development;

Also reaffirms its commitment to continue promoting the use of science, technology and innovation, including through evidence-based policymaking, in facilitating efforts to address global challenges, and to accelerate progress on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, such as efforts to eradicate poverty, including extreme poverty; achieve food security and nutrition; increase agricultural productivity; enhance access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all; fight diseases; improve education; protect the environment and address climate change; foster disaster preparedness and strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of disaster resilience-building;

Emphasizes that applying science to solve complex global challenges calls for cross- and trans-disciplinary collaboration and a strong science-policy-society interface in order to build trust in science and evidence;

Reaffirms its commitment to the actions agreed upon by the least developed countries and development partners on science, technology and innovation, as outlined in the Doha Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries, and takes note of the Doha Political Declaration, adopted during the second part of the Fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, held in Doha, from 5 to 9 March 2023;

Notes the central role of Governments, with active contribution from stakeholders from the private sector, civil society, academia and research institutions, appropriate United Nations entities, relevant international entities and forums, in creating and supporting an enabling environment at all levels, including enabling regulatory and governance frameworks, in accordance with national priorities, to nurture science, innovation, entrepreneurship and the dissemination of knowledge and technologies that is on mutually agreed terms, particularly to micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as industrial diversification and value added to commodities;

Underscores the need to adopt science, technology and innovation strategies as integral elements of national sustainable development plans and strategies that help to strengthen knowledge-sharing on mutually agreed terms and collaboration and scale up investment in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, and enhance technical, vocational and tertiary education and training;

Acknowledges the contribution of science, technology and innovation to industrial development in developing countries and as a critical source of economic growth, economic diversification and value addition;

Recognizes the importance of addressing the gap in capabilities across and between countries, sectors and segments of society so that all parts of society, especially people in vulnerable situations and the poor, can adapt and benefit from technological changes;

Also recognizes the importance of the creation of a conducive environment that attracts and supports private investment, entrepreneurship and corporate social responsibility, including an efficient, adequate, balanced and effective intellectual property framework, while encouraging access to science, technology and innovation by developing countries;

Encourages Member States to strengthen and foster investment in research and development for environmentally sound technologies and to promote the involvement of the business and financial sectors in the development of those technologies, and invites the international community to support those efforts;

Encourages all stakeholders, in an effort to prepare for existing and future opportunities and challenges presented by technological change, including the fourth industrial revolution among others, to explore ways and means of conducting inclusive national, regional and international technology assessment and foresight exercises on existing, new and emerging technologies to help to evaluate their development potential and mitigate possible negative effects and risks;

Requests the Technology Facilitation Mechanism and the Commission on Science and Technology for Development, through the Economic and Social Council, to continue to consider, in a coordinated manner within their respective mandates and existing resources, the impact of rapid technological changes and frontier technologies on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and targets, and to align this endeavour with the follow-up cycle of the high-level political forum on sustainable development in order to support the efforts of all countries towards the attainment of the Goals, including through forging partnerships with other relevant stakeholders, organizations, initiatives and forums, such as the Partnership in Action on STI for SDGs Road Maps, initiated by the United Nations inter-agency task team on science, technology and innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals, and the dissemination of advances and best practices to facilitate cooperation towards this end;

Welcomes the support by the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the Secretariat and the Economic Commission for Africa for the establishment of the Coalition on Science, Technology, and Innovation for Africa’s Development during the eighth multi-stakeholder forum on science, technology and innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals to create pathways for African countries to develop, deploy and expand their use of science, technology and innovation in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals;

Encourages Member States, individually and collectively, to support policies that increase financial inclusion, including through making use of financial technology, with a view to deepening and diversifying the sources of financing and of direct investments towards science, technology and innovations that address the Sustainable Development Goals;

Also encourages Member States to promote local innovation capabilities for inclusive and sustainable economic development by bringing together local scientific, vocational and engineering knowledge, mobilizing resources from multiple channels, improving information and communications technology and supporting infrastructure development;

Further encourages Member States to promote digital inclusion and literacy and to consider incorporating digital competencies into the education system, with a special focus on encouraging girls and enhancing digital skills and competences development, including through investment in digital qualification, specialization in digital technologies, digital infrastructure, public policies and institutional development and multi-stakeholder and international collaboration;

Underlines that addressing persistent barriers to equal access for women and girls to science, technology and innovation, and their meaningful participation in learning, as well as workforce opportunities for women requires a systematic, comprehensive, integrated, sustainable, multidisciplinary and multisectoral approach, in this regard urges Member States to mainstream a gender perspective in legislation, policies and programmes, encourages decision makers to create supportive workplace and educational settings, and also encourages efforts to promote, mentor, attract and retain women and girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and research and to support women in leveraging science and technology for entrepreneurship and economic empowerment in the changing world of work;

Emphasizes the importance of the participation of women and girls in science, technology and innovation, and further encourages the United Nations development system to support efforts to reduce gender disparity in these areas, with the cooperation of Member States and international collaborative research organizations;

Also emphasizes that efforts to close all digital divides and ensure that no one is left behind in the digital transformation and digital economy should be expanded and grounded in digital inclusion, and encourages all relevant stakeholders to promote equal, equitable and affordable access to digital skills and online services, including through digital public goods and digital government;

Notes the importance of facilitating access to and sharing accessible and assistive technologies, through the transfer of technology on mutually agreed terms and other actions, to advance disability-inclusive development, ensure accessibility for persons with disabilities and promote their empowerment;

Also notes the critical role of science, technology and innovation in accelerating the recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, and that in order to facilitate a more robust and resilient recovery, a strong global financing framework for development in science, technology and innovation, should be considered to bridge the digital divides, promote sustainable development and ensure flexibility and resilience in the face of future disruptions, highlighting how open-source technology could facilitate knowledge-sharing on mutually agreed terms and respond to common challenges across countries, reaffirming the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) as amended, also reaffirming the 2001 World Trade Organization Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, which recognizes that intellectual property rights should be interpreted and implemented in a manner supportive of the right of States to protect public health and, in particular, to promote access to medicines for all, and reaffirms the need for appropriate incentives in the development of new health products;

Encourages efforts to increase the availability of data to support the measurement of national innovation systems (such as the existing Global Innovation Index) and empirical research on innovation and development to assist policymakers in designing and implementing innovation strategies in order to measure the impact of digital technologies for sustainable development;

Emphasizes the need to effectively harness technology to bridge the digital divides within countries and between developed and developing countries;

Calls for action to be taken to enhance the ability of developing countries to benefit from science, technology and innovation and address the major structural impediments to accessing new and emerging technologies, including through scaling up the use of open science, affordable and open-source technology, research and development, including through strengthened partnerships, strengthening their productive capacities and aiming to increase funding for Sustainable Development Goal-related research and innovation and build capacity in all regions to contribute to and benefit from this research;

Encourages enhanced capacity-building support for developing countries in order to generate the use of high-quality, timely and reliable disaggregated data, and also encourages international cooperation, including through technical and financial support, to strengthen the capacity of national statistical systems;

Also encourages existing arrangements and the further promotion of international, regional, subregional and interregional joint multi-stakeholder research and development projects, as well as training programmes and university-to-university collaborations where feasible, by mobilizing scientific and research development resources, facilities and equipment;

Calls upon Member States and the United Nations development system, and encourages other stakeholders, as appropriate, to continue to initiate, implement and support measures to improve the level of participation of scientists and engineers from developing countries in international collaborative research, science, technology and innovation projects;

Also calls upon Member States and the United Nations development system, and encourages other stakeholders, as appropriate, to continue to strengthen their support for the different science, technology and innovation partnerships with developing countries in primary, secondary and higher education, vocational education and continuing education; business opportunities for the private sector; science, technology and innovation infrastructure; and science, technology and innovation advice for developing countries;

Requests the Commission on Science and Technology for Development to continue to assist the Economic and Social Council as the focal point in the system-wide follow-up to the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society and to continue its science, technology and innovation activities;

Encourages the Commission on Science and Technology for Development to discuss and explore innovative financing models, such as impact investment, as a means of attracting new stakeholders, innovators and sources of investment capital for science, technology, engineering and innovation-based solutions, in collaboration with other organizations, where appropriate;

Encourages the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, in collaboration with relevant partners, such as the World Intellectual Property Organization, the International Telecommunication Union, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and the United Nations University, to continue to undertake science, technology and innovation policy reviews, with a view to assisting developing countries, upon request, in identifying the measures needed to integrate science, technology and innovation policies into their national development strategies and ensuring that they are supportive of national development agendas, as appropriate, and in this regard takes note of the new science, technology and innovation policy review framework developed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development;

Emphasizes the importance of better coordination and coherence among existing mechanisms, including the Technology Facilitation Mechanism, United Nations agencies and international organizations in providing support to Member States in the field of science, technology and innovation directed towards development priorities and needs;

Invites the Commission on Science and Technology for Development and the Technology Facilitation Mechanism to strengthen synergies and mutually reinforce their work on science, technology and innovation, and invites the Secretariat to coordinate the dates of their meetings in order to avoid overlap and to ensure coherence and coordination between both entities;

Continues to encourage the United Nations inter-agency task team on science, technology and innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals to further refine and update its mapping of science, technology and innovation activities in the United Nations system with a view to guiding further efforts at collaboration and capacity-building and formulating coherent advice for Member States advancing national science, technology and innovation frameworks within the 2030 Agenda, including through scaling up the Global Pilot Programme on Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development Goals Road Maps;

Reiterates its call for voluntary contributions for resources from both the private and the public sectors to support the full operationalization of all components of the Technology Facilitation Mechanism;

Encourages the World Intellectual Property Organization to continue to undertake technical support activities, including helping countries to design, develop and implement national intellectual property and innovation strategies aligned with their development strategies;

Welcomes the operationalization of the Technology Bank for the Least Developed Countries, and calls upon Member States and other stakeholders to provide voluntary funding to the trust fund of the Technology Bank so that it can pursue its objectives in the area of science, technology and innovation for the least developed countries;

Notes with deep concern the existing disparities between developed and developing countries in terms of conditions, possibilities and capacities to produce new scientific and technological knowledge, and in this regard urges developed countries to urgently mobilize means of implementation such as technology transfer on mutually agreed terms, technical assistance, capacity-building and financing through new, additional and predictable resources in relation to the needs of developing countries, as appropriate, for the production of new scientific and technological knowledge, in accordance with developing countries’ national needs, policies and priorities;

Notes with concern that unfair practices could hinder technological development and innovation worldwide, in particular in developing countries, and calls upon the international community to foster an open, fair and inclusive environment for scientific and technological development;

Continues to encourage the United Nations system to take an active role in forging a closer link with national and multilateral science advisory bodies to optimally leverage science, technology and innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals, and looks forward to receiving updates and outcomes of the actions through the report of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development;

Calls upon the United Nations funds and programmes and the specialized agencies, the international community and international institutions, at the request of Member States, to support the efforts of the countries of the South to develop and strengthen their national science, technology and innovation systems through North-South, regional and international cooperation, including South-South and triangular cooperation, on access to science, technology, innovation and knowledge-sharing on mutually agreed terms;

Recognizes the importance of creating synergies, developing expertise and boosting resources in various regions and institutions, and in this regard takes note of the Summit on Science, Technology and Innovation of the Group of 77, held in Havana in September 2023, as an effort to boost cooperation in this field;

Reiterates its call for continued collaboration between United Nations entities and other international organizations, civil society and the private sector in implementing the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society;

Reaffirms the commitment at the very heart of the 2030 Agenda to leave no one behind and commit to taking more tangible steps to support people in vulnerable situations and the most vulnerable countries and to reach the furthest behind first;

Invites the President of the General Assembly to consider convening, during the eightieth session of the Assembly, a meeting on science, technology and innovation for development with a special focus on actions to address the needs of developing countries in those fields, and requests the Secretary-General to consider these discussions in the drafting of his report on the implementation of the present resolution;

Requests the Secretary-General to submit to the General Assembly at its eightieth session a report on the implementation of the present resolution and recommendations for future follow-up, including lessons learned in integrating science, technology and innovation policies into national development strategies, as well as concrete recommendations in supporting the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, and decides to include in the provisional agenda of its eightieth session, under the item entitled “Globalization and interdependence”, the sub-item entitled “Science, technology and innovation for sustainable development”.

Paragraph content is machine-extracted from UN documents. For authoritative content, please refer to the official UN document.