Description:

Halfway to the deadline for the 2030 Agenda, the UN's 2023 SDG Progress Report Special Edition shows progress on more than 50% of SDGs is weak and insufficient. Unless we act now, the 2030 Agenda could become totally failed. Based 2023 SDG Digital Acceleration Agenda, Digital technologies are reshaping the global landscape, they can achieve 70% of all SDGs. Digital technologies provide new means to operate human lives. They shape in many ways how people access and share information, form their opinions, debate, and mobilize – they have deeply transformed the “public square”. But they are equally used to suppress, limit and violate people’s voices, exacerbate pre-existing forms of gender-based violence, and introduce novel forms of abuse, for instance through surveillance, censorship, doxing, and online harassment. The digitalization of our societies has, in many instances, eroded social protections, deepened inequalities, and exacerbated existing discrimination, in particular through the use of technologies such as facial recognition, robotics, digital identification and biotechnology. To cement digital access, inclusion and trust are pivotal themes for the world. In 2021, The EU-US Trade and Technology Council was established to drive digital transformation and cooperate on trade and technology serving the societies and economies. In 2022, The African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms was updated to promote Internet rights standards and principles of openness in Internet policy formulation. In 2023, The G20 Digital Agenda: Cross-Presidency Priorities was launched to stress the digital access and inclusion in emerging markets The digital inclusion roadmap is urgent to outline within the multi-stakeholders to take this forward. The digital technology advancement will be spearheaded mainly by the private sector due to its huge economic potential. To make everyone benefits from these profound advances and limit their harmful effects, state and civil society.