UNECE’s policy reviews on innovation for sustainable development help countries build a conducive business climate, removing constraints, and address market failures. Policy advice on how to boost investment in technology and R&D supports countries to diversify their economies and upgrade technological capabilities, helping to create the conditions where entrepreneurship and innovation can thrive. These reviews put sustainable development front and centre, exploring how innovation can contribute not only to long-term economic growth, but also help address pressing social and environmental concerns. Reviews have been conducted for Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Ukraine.
UNECE is at the centre of the legal and regulatory work needed to realize the vision of new sustainable mobility and support the mass introduction of autonomous vehicles on the roads. Countries from all over the world (including the USA, all European countries, China, Japan, Korea, Australia and South Africa) participate in the work in this area, mobilizing expertise from key industries including the automotive, IT, telecoms and insurance sectors, together with civil society.
By facilitating partnerships among standards bodies, and between standards bodies and decision-makers in businesses, administrations, donor agencies and local communities, UNECE helps to bring innovative technological solutions to scale, reducing fragmentation in regulatory requirements and the duplication of standards. This supports coherent regulatory frameworks for sustainable economic growth and competitiveness that limit environmental and social risks. Supporting the gender-responsiveness of standards and the standards development process is an important dimension of this work.
The United Nations Special Programme for Central Asia (SPECA) is supporting Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan for the development and implementation of a comprehensive sub-regional strategy on innovation for sustainable development. This will guide and measure the impact of joint activities among Central Asian countries.