Ericsson: IT is Key to UN Sustainable Development Goals

Information technology and universal access to the Internet are key to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, according to a study by Ericsson and the Earth Institute at Columbia University.

The U.N.’s new agreed Sustainable Development Goals call for several breakthroughs by the year 2030, including an end to extreme poverty and hunger, while improving access to health care and education, protecting the environment and building peaceful and inclusive societies.

“We believe the new goals need to leverage existing and widely deployed technologies, but also that future developments in ICT – including next-generation mobile broadband, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, 3D printing and others – will provide the tools for unprecedented advances in health care, education, energy services, agriculture, and environmental monitoring and protection,” said Hans Vestberg, President and CEO of Ericsson.

“We have seen that a 10 percent increase in broadband penetration leads on average to one percent sustainable GDP growth. However, in some countries, the increase is even higher: up to 5 or 10 percent. That can make a real difference to people’s lives,” stated Vestberg.

The 21-page report is here:

http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2015/ict-and-sdg-interim-report.pdf