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UN DESA Policy Brief No. 174: Leveraging strategic foresight to mitigate artificial intelligence (AI) risk in public sectors
By leveraging collective intelligence and scenario planning, strategic foresight exercises can help ensure that AI technologies are developed and deployed responsibly, thereby increasing the likelihood of their positive contribution to sustainable and inclusive growth. Such forward-thinking methodologies are critical to mitigating risks and harnessing AI’s transformative power in advancing the SDGs.
UN DESA Policy Brief No. 171: Leveraging Critical Energy Transition Minerals: policy pathways for sustainable development
Developing countries with extensive critical energy transition mineral reserves have the potential to harness these resources for economic growth and sustainable development. However, doing so involves significant economic, environmental and social risks. Strong governance, strategic national policies and effective international cooperation are essential to maximize sustainable development benefits and avoid the so-called resource curse.
UN DESA Policy Brief No. 170 (Special Issue): Reimagining financing for the SDGs - from filling gaps to shaping finance
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals are dangerously off track. The prevailing “gap-filling” approach to SDG financing has proven inadequate, failing to deliver the scale, impact or equity required. Global efforts remain fixated on mobilizing additional financing rather than embedding the SDGs at the core of economic and financial systems. Blended finance, often heralded as a silver bullet, has fallen short: public resources dominate blended deals, often de-risking private initiative in lower-risk, lower-impact projects. To redirect this trajectory, the international financing architecture must be reshaped around the SDGs.