Some organizations that are already leading the action of linking science and technology with society.
If you want to know exactly where we are in our reading of the report The Future is Now, we suggest that you read some previous post.
Today, we will look at Box 3-3, which title is Strengthening the science-policy interface. It is a focus on three organizations that are major players in linking science and SDGs, through the science society interface :
- International Science Council
- World Federation of Engineering Organizations
- Inter Academy Partnership
We can note that the former and the latter are strong supporters of IYBSSD 2022. And that the founding unions are all members of ISC.
Another characteristic about ISC that is worth mentioning: this organization has been created only two years ago, with a merger of the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the International Social Science Council (ISSC). All sciences are there.
We also hope that IYBSSD 2022 will manage to mobilize all scientists, in all fields of science: basic social sciences are important too.
In many parts of the world science and technology communities, the organizations and sectors in which they work, as well as those who support them, are increasingly orienting their work towards the Sustainable Development Goals. Within the United Nations system, several mechanisms enable science and technology communities to interface with policy processes geared towards advancing the Goals. Those must be further strengthened through improved coordination and more inclusive engagement of science and technology communities from all parts of the world. The International Science Council, the World Federation of Engineering Organizations and the Inter Academy Partnership are among those who work to respond to that challenge.
In the context of global United Nations intergovernmental processes on sustainable development, the Earth Summit of 1992 recognized that achieving sustainable development would require the active participation of different stakeholders, and invited nine “Major Groups” to contribute. One of these is the Scientific and Technological Community Major Group. At the global level, the International Science Council and the World Federation of Engineering Organizations operate as the organizing partners of this Major Group, helping bring inputs from this community to several United Nations intergovernmental processes related to sustainable development.
The International Science Council brings together more than 140 national scientific organizations, including academies and research councils, and 40 international scientific unions and associations. It works to catalyse and convene international scientific expertise on issues of major global concern and to effectively integrate science into policy and public action. The World Federation of Engineering Organizations unites more than 110 multidisciplinary engineering organizations throughout the world. The Sustainable Development Goals are a priority domain of impact for both organizations, and both collaborate actively with a range of United Nations bodies.
For the successful implementation of the Goals, it is essential to connect efforts to advance evidence informed policymaking at the global level to those undertaken at national and regional levels. In this regard the work of the International Science Council and World Federation of Engineering Organizations is reinforced by the Inter Academy Partnership, the global network of over 140 merit-based science, engineering and medical academies. The InterAcademy Partnership is raising awareness and understanding of the Goals among academies, and encouraging them to engage with national and regional processes related to the Goals to ensure that they can be more informed by evidence.
