2020 CONCORDIA ANNUAL SUMMIT

Shaping our Global Future: Digital Cooperation for SDG Impact

Main Stage

Programming Partner: Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL)

• • The digital development ecosystem has the potential to increase economic wellbeing and prosperity across the world. However, this ecosystem currently faces numerous challenges, including fragmented funding, duplication of efforts, and failure to leverage economies of scale and shared infrastructure. Looking forward to how these challenges can be addressed, Cecilia Scharp emphasized the need to invest in digital transformation beyond the crisis. Scharp noted the need for a coordinated agenda, stressing that only through development effectiveness and partnerships with governments and other actors could digital transformation and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) be attained. She cited the need for inclusive national policies and supporting priorities aiming at transformation across sectors.

• “Now is the time to ask ourselves: how do we work smarter together now? We all bring something to the table,” Cecilia Scharp 

  • Axel Klaphake developed upon the need for a coordinated digital response by discussing three European Union partnership initiatives focused on joint data, ecosystems, and innovation. 
  • COVID-19 has tested the ability of governments to efficiently provide social and economic assistance on an unprecedented scale. Vyjayanti Desai highlighted the need for digital public infrastructure such as ID, digital payment systems, and data operability.
  • Liz Clyma championed for coordinated efforts to invest in the future. Even with the combined investments of donors, governments, and the private sector, we are not maximizing our return on investment. Clyma cited the importance of a dedicated platform for donor resource mobilization and a governance structure that supports the national digital vision.

• “We risk verticalizing COVID-19 as opposed to using this crisis as an opportunity to strengthen the overall primary health care system,” Liz Clyma