The Smart Nation movement is increasingly becoming an integral part of a country’s strategy to achieve sustainable growth across fundamental areas and opportunities to improve quality of life and efficiency.
Through the integration of ICT solutions across fundamental sectors a balanced socio-economic development is pursued, while ensuring that the needs of present and future generations are still met regarding economic, social, environmental and cultural aspects aiming for economic prosperity, social inclusion and environmental protection, which constitute the foundation for sustainable development.
Bureau Telecommunicatie en Post initiated this movement in Curaçao in 2016 with the conference, “Smart Nation: Curaçao objectives beyond 2020”, and is taking it further by building on the success of the event with the launch of the Curaçao Small Smart and Safe Nation (CSSSN) initiative and open platform through which collective efforts of smart nation stakeholders are rallied to achieve innovative people-centric solutions to address current and upcoming challenges Curaçao is facing. Among smart nation stakeholders, in this context, are generally considered: government, knowledge & research institutes, academia, ICT organizations, NGOs, businesses and the community.
Innovation-led knowledge sharing, partnerships and collaborative ventures form the thread that ties the platform together.
Global Smart Nation movement vs. UN Sustainable Development Agenda 2030
How does the global Smart Nation movement tie in with the United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda 2030 (SD Agenda 2030), launched on 1 January 2016? In many ways both are very much intertwined in the sense that they are mutually reinforcing and essentially have 1 common denominator acting as a key facilitator: ICT. Both concepts are essentially parallel vehicles for sustainable development.
The SD Agenda 2030 comprises 17 global sustainable development goals (SDGs), that cover economic, social, and environmental change advocating a transformational approach to development, while serving as an international development framework and a point of reference for shaping national development strategies across various sectors with ICT playing a crucial role in making progress towards each of the 17 SDGs.
The United Nations fully acknowledge the pivotal role of leveraging ICT in their efforts for global development and emphasize “the potential of the spread of information and communications technology and global interconnectedness to accelerate human progress, to bridge the digital divide and to develop knowledge societies”.
ICT infrastructure is therefore considered a cross-cutting ‘means of agenda implementation’, and stands at the core of achieving every (SDG) goal, as all three pillars of sustainable development – economic prosperity, social inclusion and environmental protection – require ICT as a fundamental catalyst. Striving for economic growth by following traditional paths will ultimately not achieve the SDGs. Only ICT, particularly broadband (networks) and underlying ubiquitous ICT infrastructures – the ‘central nervous system’ of a nation – will be able to provide a significant surge in development.
By the same token, constant factors in achieving a Smart Nation include leveraging digital technology and strategic deployment of technology, leveraging on investments in digital infrastructure, building towards a tech savvy population, internet access for all and governments that can work swiftly to coordinate policies and synergize efforts. All leading to overall digital transformation through innovation which must ultimately be conducive to economic and investment growth.
SDGs template for national development strategies worldwide
The SDGs are unique in that they call for action by all countries, poor, rich and middle-income, to promote prosperity while protecting the planet and recognizing that eradicating poverty goes hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection. All key issues to be addressed to improve the quality of life and the efficiency of services.
Although the SDGs are not legally binding, governments worldwide are expected to take ownership and establish national frameworks for the achievement of the 17 goals. Countries individually have the primary responsibility for follow-up and review of the progress made in implementing the SDGs, which will, among other things, require quality, accessible and timely data collection. Regional follow-up and review will be based on national-level analyses and in turn contribute to global level follow-up and review.
Consequently, it is becoming more and more evident that many countries worldwide are aligning their national development strategies with the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030, and prioritizing within its frameworks on the most challenging issues at hand. By doing so they are joining the framework for international cooperation to promote sustainable development between 2015 and 2030. This has resulted in various forums, initiatives and platforms launched with the aim of formulating strategic guidelines to help implement the SDGs on a national level propelling transitions to smart nations/cities.
The CSSSN initiative in Curaçao launched by BT&P aims to contribute to this process on a national level, among other things, by helping to develop collaborative networks for innovation projects and digital transformation supporting endeavors.
1. ITU globally supported U4SSC (United for Smart Sustainable Cities) platform
A perfect example of an SDG promoting initiative on a global level is the United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) initiative. U4SSC is a distinctive global smart-city advocacy platform launched by the United Nations and coordinated by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) to specifically achieve Sustainable Development Goal 11 (SDG11): “Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.
U4SSC serves as the global platform to advocate for public policy and encourage the use of ICTs to facilitate and ease the transition to smart sustainable cities by catapulting successful smart city measures into the spotlight for consideration. Download the insightful publication “Connecting cities and communities with the Sustainable Development Goals”, which dives into how cities can use ICTs to achieve the SDGs and maps out a series of case studies that aim to derive the best practices and guidelines to transforming into smart nations and achieving the SDGs. The results presented provide a useful insight and a frame of reference into innovative concepts, policies and frameworks that have been adopted in various countries, to facilitate smart-city transformations. Other publications of significant value that present case studies addressing identifiable scenarios in Curaçao are:
- “Enhancing innovation and participation in smart sustainable cities“Enhancing innovation and participation in smart sustainable cities
- “Implementing SDG11 by connecting sustainability policies and urban planning practices through ICTs“Implementing SDG11 by connecting sustainability policies and urban planning practices through ICTs
- “Collection Methodology for Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable Cities”Collection Methodology for Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable Cities
2. Upcoming WSIS Forum 2018
Another leading platform in this context is the WSIS Forum. It represents the world’s largest annual gathering of the ‘ICT for development’ community, with UNESCO as a key partner along with ITU, UNCTAD and UNDP. The WSIS Forum is a global multi-stakeholder platform facilitating the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines for advancing sustainable development.
The Forum provides an opportunity for information exchange, knowledge creation and sharing of best practices, while identifying emerging trends and fostering partnerships, taking into account the evolving Information and Knowledge Societies. It serves as a key platform for discussing the role of ICTs as a means of implementation of the SDGs and inherent targets, with due regard to the global mechanism for follow-up and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The next WSIS Forum will take place 19 – 23 March 2018 in Geneva Switzerland and is themed ‘Leveraging ICTs to Build Information and Knowledge Societies for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’.
CSSSN follow-up actions
The CSSSN initiative in Curaçao started the first quarter of 2018 with a kick-off meeting to set the tone for the rest of the year in terms of direction, objectives and strategy. Stay tuned for an update on next meetings and further course of action.