From climate and environment themed videogames to special features, pop-ups, and real-life tree-planting opportunities embedded within beloved classics like PAC-MAN or Angry Birds, the gaming industry is working with the United Nations to engage audiences like never before and inspire a new wave of climate action.
How can we tackle the lack of digital access that many developing countries face?
And how can we use digital tools to save our environment, fight inequality and help all nations benefit from the online economy? These are some of the challenges that the UN trade and development body, known as UNCTAD, is focusing on during this year’s eCommerce Week, from 25 to 29 April.
Some 2.9 billion people still have never used the internet, and 96 per cent live in developing countries, a new UN report has found. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the estimated number of people who have gone online this year actually went up, to 4.9 billion, partially because of a “COVID connectivity boost”.
All the Member states of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted on Thursday a historic agreement that defines the common values and principles needed to ensure the healthy development of AI.
Entrepreneurship can mean more freedom for women according to the first Latin-American advocate of eTrade for All, an initiative developed by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to expand and promote the digital economy, especially in low and middle-income countries.
In this week’s 15-minute podcast, we enter the murky world of so-called intelligent drone strike technology and concerns about their proliferation in an interview with the UN Institute for Disarmament Research. Also, an alert over Africa’s third COVID wave, a new UN report likening drought to a new pandemic and a warning over the plight of millions of domestic workers, from the UN labour agency ILO. Also, we’ll have closing comments from regular guest, Solange Behoteguy Cortes.
Whilst the global economy has taken a battering during the COVID-19 pandemic, online commerce has thrived. A UN-supported initiative is helping refugees and migrants around the world to access the tools and customers they need to build their businesses and improve their livelihoods.
Without harnessing the energy, tech savvy and optimism of young people, the world has no hope of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or the Paris Agreement on climate change, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Tuesday.
An independent UN human rights expert is calling for greater scrutiny of emerging digital technologies which she said are being used to uphold racial inequality, discrimination and intolerance.
The internet and new digital tools are being manipulated as never before to infringe on people’s right to free assembly, the UN’s top rights official said on Thursday, in a call for a moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology during peaceful demonstrations.
