The United Nations Office of Information and Communications Technology, or Unite, is planning to open an “innovation embassy” in San Francisco to engage with Silicon Valley, officials have told Devex exclusively.
On several recent trips to the Bay Area, Lambert Hogenhout, chief of data analytics, partnerships, and innovation at the U.N, saw that Silicon Valley investors and entrepreneurs were increasingly focusing their attention globally, either because they want to have a greater impact, or because they see international markets as essential to their future growth.
He began to explore how the U.N. might build relationships with and between Silicon Valley leaders, to direct their enthusiasm to do business with a purpose in support of the Sustainable Development Goals, as well as to inform the U.N. about the ways emerging technologies will have an impact on their work.