Introduction
Virtually every country is experiencing a growth in the size and proportion of older persons in the population, a demographic change with significant economic and social consequences (UN DESA, 2023). Several of these developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, will also experience a large increase in their young working age populations, presenting a unique opportunity to improve living standards for all, including those who would be ageing out of the workforce.
A larger working-age population can contribute to increased labour force participation, driving economic growth and productivity. Individuals in this group tend to also accumulate savings at a higher rate,…
Frontier Technology Issues: Harnessing the economic dividends from demographic change
Introduction
While fertilizers, genetically modified crops, and biotechnology have brought substantial benefits for farmers in recent decades, the accelerated application of smart, digital, and precision agricultural technologies offers a historic opportunity to improve farm productivity going forward. Such technologies are wide-ranging, including small mobile applications for decision support, field sensors and remote sensing technologies for data collection, drones and robots for automation of processes, and digital platforms for market access and sales. Use of these technologies helps address information asymmetries and deficiencies facing farmers, particularly smallholders, which can…
Frontier Technology Issues: Frontier technologies for smallholder farmers: addressing information asymmetries and deficiencies
The COVID-19 pandemic has renewed the global awareness that we are all in this together. The pandemic has set back progress on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but it has also made it possible for the international community to see the pursuit of sustainable development in a new light, and to learn from both successes and challenges of the pandemic to reinvigorate efforts towards achieving the SDGs.
The Sustainable Development Outlook 2021 charts a way forward for the world community to achieve the SDGs, despite the setback caused by COVID-19. In doing so, it focuses on SDG 1 (poverty), SDG 2 (hunger), SDG 3 (health and well-being), SDG 8 (growth and employment), SDG 10 (…
Sustainable Development Outlook 2021: From anguish to determination
Download Frontier Technology Issues: Lithium-ion batteries: a pillar for a fossil fuel-free economy? (PDF)
Introduction
In 2019, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry to three scientists for the development of lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries that, according to the Academy, have laid the foundation for a fossil fuel-free economy. Li-ion batteries can safely store large amounts of energy, ensuring stable and predictable flows of electricity even in decentralized immobile (i.e., stationary) or mobile modes in remote areas. The increasing popularity of passenger electric vehicles and electric buses is largely a result of the capacity improvement of Li-ion…
Frontier Technology Issues: Lithium-ion batteries: a pillar for a fossil fuel-free economy?
The severity of plastic pollution is now well-recognized, and countries and communities are looking for innovative solutions for addressing this menace of the modern age. This issue of the Frontier Technology Quarterly shows that new technologies such as nanotechnology, genetic modification and advanced chemical processes can help curb plastic pollution by developing natural substitutes and producing more biodegradable plastics. However, appropriate policies are needed to maximize the potential of new technologies for winning the fight against plastic pollution. Interventions at the production stage will have to be complemented by interventions at other stages of the plastics life cycle,…
Frontier Technology Quarterly: Frontier technologies for addressing plastic pollution
The World Economic and Social Survey 2018 reviews the advances in frontier technologies ? automation, robotics, electric vehicles, renewable energy technologies, biotechnologies and artificial intelligence ? and analyses their economic, social and environmental impact. These technologies possess immense potential for fostering growth, prosperity and environmental sustainability and accelerating the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.? Advances in frontier technologies also present new and unique challenges. While promising prosperity, they also present risks of growing unemployment, underemployment and inequality, and raise new ethical and moral challenges.
Full…
World Economic And Social Survey 2018: Frontier Technologies For Sustainable Development
In drawing the most relevant lessons for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the World Economic and Social Survey 2017 systematically reviews the seven decades of development discussions contained in the publication ? the oldest continuous publication of its kind. Since its inception in 1947 and before the publication of the World Bank?s first World Development Report in 1978, the Survey had been the only publication that produced annual reporting and analyses of the global economic trends and their development implications. As such, the Survey has documented a wealth of development experiences across the different phases of global economic development (see Figure 1).…
UN/DESA Policy Brief #51: Reflecting on the World Economic and Social Survey's 70 years of development policy analysis
Since 1947 the World Economic and Social Survey has promoted a broader understanding of development, emphasizing the importance of advancing the structural transformation of the economy, progress in social development and environmental sustainability. This year?s edition, Reflecting on 70 years of development policy analysis, shows that many parallels can be drawn between the challenges currently facing the international community and those that confronted the world in the past. These lessons from the past are relevant to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In particular, the Survey highlights the importance of a stable global economy supported by coordinated…
World Economic and Social Survey 2017: Reflecting on 70 years of development policy analysis
Summary: Productivity growth has slowed down markedly since the global financial crisis. Many factors have been proposed as underlying forces behind this phenomenon, including a slower pace of technological progress and the role of weak demand and lower capital investment. However, one factor that has received relatively less attention is the slowdown in international trade. By exploiting the firm heterogeneity dimension, recent advances in the literature on international trade offer interesting insights to understand the relationship between the weaknesses in global trade and the deceleration in productivity growth. In particular, it shows how trade, investment and technology decisions at…
Development Issues No. 11: The Slowdown in Productivity Growth: A View from International Trade
Summary: Achieving the SDGs requires an enhanced global part?nership for the mobilization of financial resources. Long-term financial flows, such as remittances, FDI and ODA, can support investments that are critical for productive employment and growth in developing countries. A review of recent trends suggests the need for a renewed commitment and enhanced efforts by the international community to support financing for sustainable development. It also points out at potential risks of debt sustainability for a few developed and some emerging economies.
The Development Policy and Analysis Division at DESA has prepared a series of policy notes to review current trends in the global economy…
Development Issues No. 10: International financial flows and external debt
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