Unlocking Technology for the Global Goals

The report analyzes over 300 Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) technology applications, finding that 70% of the 169 targets underpinning the Global Goals could be enabled by existing 4IR technologies. While high impact is seen in health, clean energy, and infrastructure, progress is lagging in areas like poverty and gender equality due to market failures. The document identifies critical barriers including poor data quality, lack of basic infrastructure in least-developed countries, and a talent gap. It proposes a set of enablers—such as responsible technology governance, blended finance, and agile public policy—to move from short-term private gain to a principled approach for public good. The report concludes with a 'call to action' for government and tech leaders to commit to R&D, infrastructure investment, and ethical frameworks to meet the 2030 deadline.

• Analysis of over 300 technology applications indicates that 70% of the 169 targets underpinning the Global Goals could be enabled by existing Fourth Industrial Revolution technology applications.
• The adoption of 4IR technologies is uneven and concentrated in sectors with high private-sector commercial benefits, such as health (Goal 3), clean energy (Goal 7), and industry, innovation and infrastructure (Goal 9), while goals linked to market failures or public goods, such as no poverty (Goal 1), gender (Goal 5), and life below water (Goal 14), have the lowest number of applications.
• Big data platforms and artificial intelligence (AI) are uniquely versatile, with the potential to support progress across every one of the 17 Global Goals.
• A significant 'broadband gap' hinders the leapfrogging potential of 4IR technologies in least-developed countries; for example, Africa has an internet penetration rate below 40% and 800 million people lack electricity access.
• Technological development is heavily skewed toward advanced economies and specific demographics, with 90% of AI start-ups based in the United States and only 22% of AI professionals globally being women, which may lead to a lack of relevance for users in least-developed countries.
• The report identifies five transformative changes enabled by 4IR: increasing system productivity, enhancing transparency and accountability, promoting decentralization and access, creating new financing models, and accelerating discovery of new materials.
• Scaling 4IR technologies introduces significant risks, including inherent biases in AI that can exacerbate racial and gender discrimination, potential job displacement through automation, and high environmental costs, such as the energy consumption of bitcoin transactions.
• To unlock the potential of 4IR for the Global Goals, the report recommends eight enablers: responsible technology governance, leadership to mobilize standards, cross-sector partnerships, agile public policy, blended finance mechanisms, collaborative R&D for breakthrough innovation, democratization of data and tools, and comprehensive upskilling and reskilling.

APA

World Economic Forum (2020). Unlocking Technology for the Global Goals. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Unlocking_Technology_for_the_Global_Goals.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Unlocking Technology for the Global Goals. 2020. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Unlocking_Technology_for_the_Global_Goals.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Unlocking Technology for the Global Goals |date=January 2020 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Unlocking_Technology_for_the_Global_Goals.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2020unlocking, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Unlocking Technology for the Global Goals}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2020}, month = jan, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Unlocking_Technology_for_the_Global_Goals.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }