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UN DESA Policy Brief No. 174: Leveraging strategic foresight to mitigate artificial intelligence (AI) risk in public sectors
By leveraging collective intelligence and scenario planning, strategic foresight exercises can help ensure that AI technologies are developed and deployed responsibly, thereby increasing the likelihood of their positive contribution to sustainable and inclusive growth. Such forward-thinking methodologies are critical to mitigating risks and harnessing AI’s transformative power in advancing the SDGs.
UN DESA Policy Brief No. 173: SDGs as a Framework for Addressing the Root Causes of Crisis
Converging crises have become a defining challenge of our time and have imposed high costs on developing countries. Reducing poverty and inequality and investing in healthcare and social protection are critical to building resilience against the impact of crises. The SDGs provide an effective roadmap to build such resilience capacity.
UN DESA Policy Brief No. 172: The New Landscape of Fertility and Family Planning 30 Years After Cairo and Beijing
Thirty years after the landmark Cairo and Beijing conferences, the world has witnessed both progress and continued challenges in many aspects of sexual and reproductive health, including adolescent childbearing and contraceptive use. Within the broad picture of progress and stalls in sexual and reproductive health, this policy brief examines in more depth the changes in adolescent birth rates and family planning in the context of global fertility decline over the last 30 years and discusses the challenges of living up to the commitments made at Cairo and Beijing moving forward.
UN DESA Policy Brief No. 171: Leveraging Critical Energy Transition Minerals: policy pathways for sustainable development
Developing countries with extensive critical energy transition mineral reserves have the potential to harness these resources for economic growth and sustainable development. However, doing so involves significant economic, environmental and social risks. Strong governance, strategic national policies and effective international cooperation are essential to maximize sustainable development benefits and avoid the so-called resource curse.
UN DESA Policy Brief No. 170 (Special Issue): Reimagining financing for the SDGs - from filling gaps to shaping finance
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are dangerously off track. The prevailing “gap-filling” approach to SDG financing has proven inadequate, failing to deliver the scale, impact or equity required. Global efforts remain fixated on mobilizing additional financing rather than embedding the SDGs at the core of economic and financial systems. Blended finance, often heralded as a silver bullet, has fallen short: public resources dominate blended deals, often de-risking private initiative in lower-risk, lower-impact projects. To redirect this trajectory, the international financing architecture must be reshaped around the SDGs.