PRESENTATION AT THE UNITED NATIONS

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At the International Federation for Information Processing’s (IFIP) World Computer Congress (WCC) 2018 in Poznan, Poland, last September, Shamika N. Sirimanne, the Director of the Division on Technology and Logistics at UNCTAD, called for Collaboration between the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development (CSTD) and IFIP.  IFIP is a UNESCO-affiliated body (IFIP will be celebrating its 60th Birthday in UNESCO’s Paris HQ in Spring 2020) and closer links between the organisations are being sought and forged from both directions. 

The two priority themes and two additional concerns for the 22nd session of CSTD, in May 2019, were:

  1. Assessing the impact of rapid technological change on sustainable development;
  2. Defining the role of science, technology and innovation in building resilient communities, including through the contribution of citizen science.
  3. Exploring frameworks for monitoring AI and machine learning algorithms;
  4. Identifying how frontier technologies might increase or decrease existing digital divides.

TC9 is therefore the stand-out part of IFIP that should lead the response to this call for collaboration, and David KREPS, as TC9 Chair, has been responsible for spearheading this response.

Chrisanthi Avgerou, Mike Hinchey, David Kreps, and Don Gotterbarn, at the Palais des Nations, Geneva

As a part of this activity Professor Mike HINCHEY (President of IFIP, President of Irish Computer Society), Emeritus Professor Don GOTTERBARN (ACM Representative on TC9, Chair SIG 9.2.2) Professor Chrisanthi AVGEROU (Past TC9 and WG9.4 Chair), and David KREPS presented to the 22nd Session of the CSTD on the afternoon of 14th May 2019 in the Palais des Nations in Geneva, on the theme of “AI & Ethics in the developing world”. 

It was an excellent hour attended by over 50 delegates from around the world, along with Shamika Sirimanne and representatives from the UN Secretariat.