At the 21-25 May session, ministerial and other participants, including a Nobel laureate, will seek new ways to harness science and technology to address development challenges, and review the progress made in the implementation of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) outcomes.
The 15th session of the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) is being held from 21-25 May 2012 in Geneva. UNCTAD serves as the secretariat of the CSTD.
The session will feature high-level participants, including Nobel Laureate Professor Richard Ernst, Dr. Hamadoun Touré, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Dr. Gretchen Kalonji, Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Mr. Janis Karklins, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, UNESCO, and Dr. Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director-General of CERN. The meeting was opened this morning by Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD.
Ministers from sixteen countries are expected to attend the Ministerial Round Tables, titled “Beyond the Millennium Development Goals: Harnessing science and technology to address development challenges”, and “Review of progress made in the implementation of WSIS outcomes".
The Commission will consider the proposed improvements to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), as well as discuss the outcomes of the Open Consultation on Enhanced Collaboration on Issues Pertaining to the Internet, an event which took place on 18 May in Geneva.
In addition, it will examine two priority themes, on "Innovation, research, technology transfer for mutual advantage, entrepreneurship and collaborative development in the Information Society" and on "Open access, virtual science libraries, geospatial analysis and other complementary information and communications technology and science, technology, engineering and mathematics assets to address development issues, with particular attention to education."
Also, at this year's session of the CSTD, the national science, technology and innovation policy (STIP) reviews of El Salvador and Peru will be officially presented.
