📅 5–6 March 2024
Helsinki, Finland
The world is far off track from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the least developed countries (LDCs) are in danger of being left even further behind. With seven years left to 2030, we must urgently develop new ways to accelerate the needed transformations. Making better use of science, technology, and innovations is key to this task.
To support the LDCs to reach the SDGs, the Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (UN-OHRLLS) and the government of Finland are organizing a series of LDC Future Forums to gather different actors regularly.
Building on the first LDC Future Forum in Helsinki in 2021 and its session Deploying Digital: Leveraging STI and emerging digital technologies for sustainable development, the second Forum will focus on the role of innovation in structural transformation. The panel sessions cover key sectors, including education, job creation, agro-processing, and e-commerce.
The LDC Future Forum brings together policymakers and researchers from LDCs and their development partners, permanent representatives to the UN of the LDCs, as well as civil society and the private sector. The objective is to share ideas and lessons learned and draw evidence-based policy recommendations.
As with the first LDC Future Forum, UNU-WIDER is a partner in organizing the event. Other supporting partners include the OECD Development Centre, the Foundation for Studies and Research on International Development (FERDI), the UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti, and the UN Technology Bank for LDCs.