UN OICT

09/10/2026

With underway, United Nations is tackling the world’s most complex challenges. Making sense of data is increasingly part of that work.

? Open to all United Nations personnel, UNITE Academy is a series of training sessions on data and analytics offered by OICT, aiming to enhance data literacy and increasing awareness of data and analytics within the Organization.

Learn more at: https://youtu.be/_0vcs_RpFpI?si=72mTDNNdoVr6fXHj

09/08/2026

And we’re live! opens today.

For UN OICT Broadcast and Conference Support Section (BCSS), that means some of the busiest weeks of the year are officially underway.

From the General Assembly Hall to media zones, meeting rooms and studios across UN Headquarters, BCSS teams will be working behind-the-scenes to keep cameras rolling, microphones live, conference systems running and people connected.

As one of our technicians puts it: “We are the eyes and the ears of the UN.”

There’s a lot ahead. BCSS is ready.

What does it take to enable officials from across the globe to convene, speak and understand each other at the United Nations while also broadcasting proceedings to the wider world? Go behind the scenes with the UN's 'eyes and ears' as Misra Iltus explains how her team makes it possible for particip...

09/08/2026

Exciting update from :

Unveiled at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Suno Sutra, co-developed by Bhashini and Current AI, is an open-source, multilingual, handheld AI reference design. https://www.currentai.org/prototype

Kalpa Impact orchestrated and supported the collaboration of BHASHINI - (Digital India BHASHINI Division) and CurrentAI to build this prototype open-source hardware and software community for multilingual, offline AI. Together, Bhashini brings India’s language technology infrastructure, with capabilities across 22+ Indian languages, Current AI, an international non-profit collective for public-good AI, brings expertise in open-source, human-centric technologies and open hardware, and Kalpa Impact helps shape the direction, establish protocols, design principles and provide the implementation expertise needed to build around India’s realities.

Suno Sutra is the starting point.

The was designed to put the reference design in the hands of builders, with social impact at its core — asking participants to develop public-interest applications and rethink the hardware itself to make it smaller, more power-efficient and rugged for localised deployment.

The response has already begun to show the breadth of the community:

📩 135 applications from researchers, students, startups and academia across 10+ states
🔍 35 teams taken through technical assessment
🔧 18 teams selected for hardware build-out
🌱 Applications ranging from offline crop diagnosis and livestock health to language preservation and accessible document reading

With open hardware and software, the ambition is to enable future hardware, localised applications and new pathways for social impact, shaped by a growing community of builders.

Stay tuned for more updates!

09/03/2026

Achieving means building digital infrastructure that is resilient, inclusive and accessible to all and ensuring innovation reaches the communities that stand to benefit from it most.

Investing in advanced technologies and closing the remaining gaps in mobile broadband access will be critical to ensuring no one is left behind.

Learn more about the progress, challenges and actions needed to achieve : https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/infrastructure-industrialization/

09/02/2026

This week’s spotlight is close to home.

Meet Carlota Martin Polo, Communications and Outreach Intern at UN OICT, helping bring stories of technology, AI and innovation across the UN to a wider audience through the campaign.
https://unite.un.org/en/WomenInTech-UN/carlota-martin-polo

08/31/2026

What happens after UN Open Source Week?

Kicking off a series here over the coming months, we’re revisiting moments from hashtag 2026 and following up on what's happened since.

First up, an exciting development from Japan!

During OSPOs for Good Day, our “Country Spotlight: Lessons from Open Source Implementation in Japan” brought together an impressive group from government, industry and academia to discuss Japan’s evolving approach to open source and the role OSPOs could play in building a stronger open source ecosystem: Masayuki Yamada (Digital Agency, Government of Japan), Ken Chibana (Tokyo Metropolitan Government), Masato Endo (Toyota Motor Corporation), Masayuki Kuwata (Sony), Yuichi Kusakabe (Honda), Hiroyuki Ishii (Panasonic/ Linux Foundation Japan) and Shoji Kajita (Nagoya University / Kyoto University / Apereo Foundation).

Together, they laid out what Yamada-san called the “Japan Model” of open source collaboration.

The line that stuck with us: when Masayuki Yamada described Japan's "virtual OSPO" — no formal office, no charter, yet the functions were already at work. "Function precedes form," he said, "and the institutional shape catches up" (https://lnkd.in/eda_vXqS).

And last month, an exciting development took shape. Japan's Cabinet approved its new Priority Policy Program for Realizing a Digital Society — and for the first time, a Cabinet decision commits the Government of Japan to establishing a formal OSPO at the Digital Agency. https://lnkd.in/epqnwFmU

We talk a lot about open source as a foundation for digital sovereignty and technological resilience. But turning those ambitions into practice requires institutions, skills and sustained engagement with open source communities. OSPOs can be an important part of that infrastructure.

It’s great to see the conversation moving forward so quickly. We’re excited to see where Japan’s open source efforts go from here and look forward to following what comes next from hashtag !

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08/20/2026

What happens when better data meets action?

For Saeeda Faisal, Provincial Communications & MIS Project Assistant at UN-HABITAT, technology means turning information into smarter decisions, stronger programmes and real impact.

Learn more at: https://unite.un.org/en/WomenInTech-UN/saeeda-faisal

08/18/2026

As AI reshapes how information is created and shared, strengthening information integrity has never been more urgent.

The UN Global Principles for Information Integrity offer a path forward.

The United Nations Global Principles For Information Integrity presents a vision of a future in which power imbalances are redressed so that a small group of actors - including technology companies based in a handful of countries - no longer monopolize control over global information flows.

08/18/2026

Govern AI together— or let it govern you.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres draws the stark choice: “The question is no longer whether AI will transform our world – it already is. The question is whether we will govern this transformation together – or let it govern us.”

On 6-7 July, all 193 UN Member States and stakeholders converge to discuss international cooperation on AI governance at the inaugural Global Dialogue on AI Governance in Geneva.

🔗 Learn more: https://www.un.org/global-dialogue-ai-governance/en



UN OICT ITU UNESCO UNESCO Dhaka

08/13/2026

feature:

Hanna Stenbacka Köhler, Global Data Network Manager, at the United Nations Development Coordination Office, talks about the Digital Solutions Lab, where she experiments with AI and shapes digtal solutions as a problem owner!
https://unite.un.org/en/WomenInTech-UN/hanna-stenbacka-kohler