Introducing the United Nations University - Tokyo 2024

okay and next we have two more very special guests coming up we have uh tashii marala of the United Nations University and Kiki Bowman thank you so much uh I'm Kiki Bowman unfortunately uh CH marala can't join us today but there is a video message that we'll play after this and I would just like to welcome everyone to United Nations University I am the head of communications here um and since we're all gathered here today and you may be don't know much about us I'd like to take a few moments to briefly introduce youu uh and what we do here because we occupy quite a unique space uh and I think quite interesting space within the UN system so how are we unique uh we are an education and research organization globally comprising 13 institutes 12 countries and five continents we are also the only UN agency headquartered here in Japan uh and while each of our 13 institutes has its own Focus area we are one of the few un agencies that conducts research across all 17 of the sustainable development goals so as a think tank for the UN system we are not a traditional University however four of our institutes offer Master's Andor PHD programs for the last 50 years we have been a trusted knowledge partner to the UN while keeping our autonomy as a resar research and training organization unu serves as a link between research and policymaking generating evidence-based answers to overcome complex and interconnected Global challenges we Solutions f f we Solutions focused that approach pushes us to build re research Partnerships that can address the world's pressing problems at local National and Global levels so what does all this mean in practice our activities span across a wide range of topics climate change gender Health digital Innovation Finance biodiversity water just to name very very few of what we're doing our goal is to build knowledge to transform the world and our research education Publications training and capacity programs are as diverse and interconnected as the current challenges that our world faces so to give this an example I'll I'll give an example that is in Japan um it's not digital focused but um we have an Institute here called the uh Advanced study of sustainability so unu IAS and they work with local communities in Japan that use the traditional techniques of agriculture and fishing these communities have adapted their Landscapes preserved the biodivers adapted to their Landscapes preserved the biodiversity of their region and are still able to thrive off the land and water so the research that IAS does focuses on the maintenance and development of new socioeconomic activities that align and support biodiversity and natural processes like the governor just said the traditional informs the new um and recently um just as a side note um a few days ago we had an event with uh the Minister of Foreign Affairs here in Japan and it was a youth dialogue and um you know there was conversation and one of the young participants said we need the wisdom of one context to help the wisdom of the other context without imposing and it reminded me of the research some of the research that IAS does and some of the research that we do around the globe um and that's just one specific example of everything that we're doing here we do a lot of work with digital governance and Technology more and more we work on AI and AI governance the unu Rector chit marwala is an AI expert and under his leadership we are vastly expanding our focus on AI and research and its implic implications for the achievement of the sustainable development and while I know AI may not by your main focus here it is perhaps of note that we will soon be opening our 14th Institute in Italy the aptly named un Institute for artificial intelligence we're already working in digital space and AI robustly already um a few examples there uh we have research on the impacts of artificial intelligence on women's security and peace building in Asia another one addressing the use of AI power disinformation and conflict settings we're also helping shaping the Frameworks for governing AI Technologies so you andu is focused on the Forefront of the UN system work to ensure AI is used for good and unfortunately I cannot begin to go through all of our work in digital all of our work that we're doing around the world um but no our mission is to contribute through collaborative research and education to efforts to resolve the pressing Global problems of human survival development and Welfare that are concerned of the U the UN its people and its member states we are excited to host you here today uh we believe we need to tear down silos and discuss massive interconnected solutions for these massive interconnected problems and we need many so this isor Mar unforunately can't be here but he'll talk a little bit about some of our work greetings and thank you for joining us today as we open the 20124 funding the commons conference on behalf of everyone at the United Nations University I extend a warm welcome to all of you today as We Gather here in Tokyo at unu headquarters a hub for the United Nations in Asia we are in the midst of a pivotal year for Global sustainable development that will culminate with the summit of the future at the United Nations in New York in September the Summit is a once in a generation opportunity for UN member states to assess progress on the sustainable development goals and commit to a new PCT that will guide International action to safeguard the future for present and coming Generations a significant outcome of the summit will be the global digital compact already available in its second revision the global digital compact outlines shared principles for an open free and secure digital future for all over the next two days you will all right well thank you so much let's give a big round of applause thank