Q&A: How the UN’s ‘knowledge bank’ helps countries innovate

The United Nations’ youngest institution has been hard at work on a plan to help countries build their science, technology, and innovation capacity since beginning operations from its headquarters in Gebze, Turkey, in 2018. The U.N. Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries is starting by conducting needs assessments, which are meant to inform policies, strategies, and partnerships tailored to each country. At the helm is Managing Director Joshua Setipa, who was formerly the minister of trade and industry for the government of Lesotho. At the U.N. Technology Bank, he leads a team of 18 people who have seen their work both disrupted and bolstered by the COVID-19 pandemic. “We have a better sense of where the gaps are in the policy frameworks, where the gaps are on the infrastructure side, where the gaps are in all the key enablers for technology to thrive and innovation to thrive,” Setipa said. “Unless the right ecosystem prevails, we will not be able to create or build up the capacity for increased investments, for example, around technology or to support innovation or to unlock the potential that we know exists in these countries for innovation.” Setipa has been on the road recently, meeting with government leaders, U.N. representatives, and potential supporters to discuss the organization’s progress and its goals for the future. On a recent trip to Washington, he sorted out the details of acquiring the Global Innovation Exchange, which described itself as the largest global development innovation platform and was sunsetted in August due to insufficient funding. Setipa said GIE will help the U.N. Technology Bank in its efforts to support so-called least developed countries to build science, technology, and innovation capacity. “We’re a knowledge bank,” he said. “So if a country is looking for technology to solve the problem of clean drinking water, for example, they should be able to come to the Technology Bank, and the Technology Bank can match them with technologies that are available on an open-source basis without them having to go and knock on everyone’s door to look for those technologies.” As Setipa gears up for the fifth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, or LDC5, which is taking place in Doha, Qatar, in January, he spoke with Devex about what’s next for the U.N. Technology Bank. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. So far, the U.N. Technology Bank has completed five technology needs assessments — in Guinea, Bhutan, East Timor, Uganda, and Gambia. The process was delayed by COVID-19, and now 16 more TNAs are underway. How are these assessments conducted, and what comes next? The technology needs assessments are diagnostic tools we use to evaluate the priorities of countries. There are 46 least developed countries today, but they are not at the same level when it comes to technology. We cannot approach the LDCs with a one-size-fits-all mentality, and the technology needs assessment provides a snapshot of what the situation is in a country at a particular moment. We look at policy gaps. What are the gaps in the policy framework that limit a country’s ability to exploit the opportunity technology presents? What are the limitations in its ecosystem that undermine its ability to attract investments in the tech industry? What are the challenges a country faces in enhancing its ability to take advantage of digital trade? We undertake comprehensive consultation with governments, with nonstate actors, with the private sector, with anyone we feel has a role to play in formulating a national approach to science, technology, and innovation. At the end of that process, we validate with all the stakeholders to say: “This is what we have seen. Does this reflect your assessment of the issues that face you?” We help countries understand how to remove bottlenecks around coordination. In some countries, you talk to the minister of agriculture, innovation, and health, and they all have different priorities. This disjointed approach is ineffective and, of course, not resource-efficient. We help countries narrow it down to one or — maximum — two priorities. We have them identify that one key priority that can unlock potential across the board, because the reality is, if a country has five, six, seven priorities, it makes it very difficult to implement. The easy part is the first phase, because the second phase is where we mobilize resources and support towards helping countries deal with that priority. So for example, if it’s ICT [information and communications technology], there are issues of finance, there are issues of infrastructure, there are issues of finding partners and solutions that can address that. That’s what we call the “technology implementation plans.” The idea is to finish all TNAs in the LDCs [and] then move on to the technology implementation plans. What are some of the challenges that the U.N. Technology Bank has faced beyond COVID-19? In several countries, we are facing difficulties because of recent geopolitical developments. Take, for example, Afghanistan. The Afghanistan TNA was on track. It was actually one of the best coordinated. Sudan, where I was a few weeks ago, had the most organized stakeholder process I’d ever seen anywhere. They were going to launch their report in December. That has stopped. In Guinea, we did the TNA. We launched our [program on] national academies of science … in Guinea. That work is disrupted because we are still trying to understand what their new priorities are. We have seen similar challenges across most of the Sahel [region of Africa]. We were going to start work in Haiti but had to stop. … So we had to navigate all that. In addition to restrictions around COVID, we also have had these political security restrictions, which have undermined the progress of our work. The U.N. Technology Bank is the first and only U.N. entity with its headquarters in Turkey. The country serves as your host and also contributes financially. What are your other sources of support? The Technology Bank, unlike most U.N. entities, is funded 100% from external budgetary resources, which means we do not get a cent from the regular budget of the U.N. So resource mobilization is at the heart of the U.N. Technology Bank. Without resources, we shut down completely. Today, our main contributor is Turkey. We’ve also had one-off contributions from countries like Norway, India, and also LDCs. We’ve received money from Bangladesh, from Guinea. And in addition to that, we’ve received in-kind support from countries like Italy, which has seconded people to the Technology Bank. “We look at policy gaps. What are the gaps in the policy framework that limit a country’s ability to exploit the opportunity technology presents?” --— Joshua Setipa, managing director, U.N. Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries If you look at how much it was estimated that the Technology Bank will need to be able to deliver on its current strategic plan on an annual basis, we are 87% below target. The [U.N.] secretary-general continues to make the case on our behalf. We continue to make the case at all opportunities. Unless we’re able to secure not only the predictable funding but also be able to have enough funding commitments that allow multiple-year programming, then the future of the U.N. tech bank is in doubt. If we are not able to mobilize resources, then the viability of the bank becomes questionable, and this is why we spend the bulk of our time engaging with nontraditional and traditional donors. Any final messages for Devex’s audience? Innovation is not a north-south issue; innovation does not have to come from the global north to the global south. Some of the most dynamic innovation ecosystems I’ve seen are in the LDCs. Take, for example, Bangladesh, Senegal, Rwanda. How can we unlock that potential? How can we create the right ecosystem that allows venture capital to flow, which is important for startups to scale up and provide solutions? We are doing that in a modest way, but we are too small to make an impact. So we need partners that have the scale to be able to do that. So our approach is going to focus primarily on those two key outputs: enhancing capacity around science, technology, and innovation and also building the ecosystem that is required to fully exploit what technology can do.