UNCTAD Update:?Building post-pandemic resilience through science, technology and innovation

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UNCTAD Update (4?to 14 May)

Our latest?news, thought leadership and events

News

This week UNCTAD drew the curtain on the programme for the 24th?Commission on Science and Technology for Development. The week-long event (17-21 May) will bring together UN leaders, scientists and experts to explore how science, technology and innovation can contribute to a sustainable and resilient COVID-19 recovery. .

UNCTAD also told the story of women entrepreneurs changing the gender narrative against all odds. Agda ?liver, a car shop owner in Brazil, and Lama Sha’sha’a, co-founder of a robotics academy in Jordan, share their experiences overcoming barriers to become successful entrepreneurs in sectors seen by many as "for men". .?

This week?UNCTAD also launched a new portal that tracks COVID-19’s impact on trade and development. The?data-rich portal enhances policymakers’ understanding of the pandemic’s wide-ranging impact and helps them design suitable recovery policies. Read more in , , .

Last week UNCTAD released new e-commerce figures which showed global e-commerce jumping?to $26.7 trillion as?COVID-19 boosted?online sales. The pandemic has, however, resulted in mixed fortunes for some e-commerce companies, reversing the profits of firms offering services such as ride-hailing and travel. Read more in , , .

Then UNCTAD also spotlighted the story of Empreteco, Julian Omalla, a prize-winning Ugandan woman entrepreneur better known as "Mama Cheers," who makes one of her country's most popular fruit drinks. The government has awarded her a $10 million grant to build a fresh juice factory in northern Uganda. Read her story in , , .

Finally, UNCTAD's LDC chart of the month shows that one-third of the world's poorest nations will take five years or more to regain their pre-pandemic level of GDP per capita.?.

Thought leadership and opinion

The economic performance of many Asian nations over the past decades has been remarkable and led many analysts to declare the arrival of an “Asian century”. An UNCTAD blog by?Dawei Wang, Economist, UNCTAD?explores what's needed for that to happen.?Read?.

Upcoming events
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Commission on Science and Technology for Development, twenty-fourth session,?17 - 21 May 2021

Please join UNCTAD next week for the 24th session of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development. For more on the event, and take a look through the list of side events.?
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Commission on Science and Technology for Development: A Conversation with Great Minds, 17 May 2021, 12pm (New York Time)

The Chair of the Twenty-Fourth Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD), Mr. Peter Major (Hungary), cordially invites you to a special session on Zoom:?A Conversation with Great Minds - the leading scientist of our time
Speakers:?

  • ?Dr. Jennifer Doudna, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, UC Berkeley
  • ?Dr. Katalin Karikó, Senior Vice President, BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals

Moderator:

  • Ms. Didi Akinyelure, Award-winning journalist?

Scientific advances are being made in leaps and bounds. In the biotech field, the revolutionary CRISPR gene-editing tool and the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, are revolutionizing healthcare and hold the promise of changing our world for the better, with the prospects of eradicating pathogens, treating degenerative conditions, and growing more food, to name a few.?

But important questions arise with such ground-breaking advances. These need to be answered to inform public policymaking, especially for developing countries – where many of the challenges that these technologies promise to address are prevalent. This year’s?Conversation with Great Minds?will address the following issues:

  • What support is needed for doing cutting-edge research?
  • How do we scale breakthrough technologies to those who need them most?
  • How can politicians be engaged to support research priorities of public interest?
  • How do we ensure that any risks of such revolutionary technologies are mitigated?
  • How did these remarkable women in science break the glass ceiling in their careers?

Join us via Facebook Live:?

Or on . For more information visit our event page.
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?High-level event on culture and sustainable development, 21 May, 9am (New York time)
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This event marks World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development, and will highlight the resilient and transformative role of culture as an accelerator of SDG implementation, as well as the challenges within the cultural and creative industries and the broader cultural ecosystem that were exposed and exacerbated by the COVID-19 crisis.?Its overall theme shall be “Building back better: towards a more resilient and impactful culture sector throughout COVID-19 and The Decade of Action”.It will, inter alia, provide the opportunity for Member States to share experiences on crisis-response measures to support the creative economy during the pandemic; identify implementation gaps and solutions; and call for strengthening strategic cross-sectoral partnerships to unlock the transformative potential of culture in the recovery context and throughout the Decade of Action. The event will be live cast on UN Web TV. .?
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UNCTAD15 Pre-event: Productive Capacities for the New Decade, 26 May, 11:30am to 1:00pm (New York time)

The online event aims to provide a dialogue space to explore innovative strategies to undertake a Productive Capacities Gap Assessment so as to reach a common understanding of its role in the context of a smooth transition strategy for graduation with momentum.?The side event is organized by UNCTAD, the Enhanced Integrated Framework, the Committee for Development Policy and the UN Technology Bank for LDCs.?.?

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Watch in less than one minute the shifting tides in global trade over the past four decades. .
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This newsletter was prepared by UNCTAD New York Office of the Secretary-General

Email:?UNCTADNY2@un.org

Visit our? for more on UNCTAD’s work in monitoring the effects of the global pandemic on manufacturing, trade, foreign direct investment, and economic growth and new resources we offer to address them.

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