Leading global professional services company, Accenture has declared that the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) sector can play a vital role in helping achieve the objectives of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.
In its latest study prepared for the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI), it said that the ICT through digital solutions would drive the progress of the SDGs with special focus on improving lives, fostering growth and environmental protection.
According to the study, the driver would involve deploying innovative digital solutions to improve the quality of people’s lives, achieve equitable growth and protect the environment.
Sustainable future
The GeSI report, demonstrates the impact that digital technologies can have on shaping a more sustainable future, and highlight the opportunity for companies in the ICT sector to drive growth and competitiveness by investing in these initiatives.
The report also identifies roadblocks to realizing the full potential of these digital solutions, including policy, regulatory and supply-side constraints, as well as barriers on the demand-side.
The report also found that every country has achievement gaps in more than half of the 17 SDGs, and many fall short on all.
While the greatest strides are needed in the least developed countries and developing regions, the report demonstrates that action is equally needed in developed regions to decouple their economic growth from degrading the environment.
Chairman, GeSI, Luis Neves, said that “GeSI is committed to leading the discussion about how the world should use digital solutions to address the challenge of meeting the SDGs.
“By making the SDGs GeSI’s central framework for action, we have defined an implementation roadmap that we will continue to refine to guide our priorities up to 2030, and we commit to supporting our member organizations to make this exciting vision a reality,” he added.
For him, widespread deployment of digital solutions will substantially contribute to all three dimensions of development covered by the SDGs.
The report shows that by 2030, ICT sector companies could realize $ 2.1 trillion in additional annual revenue by 2030 from services that directly contribute to SDG achievement.
This includes $400 billion per year from connecting an additional 2.5 billion people to communication services by 2030.
Additionally, it indicated that $ 1.7 trillion can be realized from digital solutions contributing towards SDG achievement, including e-Commerce (USD 580 billion), e-Work (USD 537 billion), smart buildings (USD 200 billion), e-Government (USD 86 billion), and online learning (USD 75 billion).
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Emmanuel Elebeke
Quelle/Source: Vanguard, 29.06.2016
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