Towards 2030 and Beyond: Accelerating the SDGs through Access to Evidence on What Works

Summary

This discussion focused on accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through improved access to evidence and international collaboration. The event brought together representatives from governments, the UN, academia, and civil society to explore how evidence synthesis and new technologies like AI can support SDG achievement.

Speakers highlighted the urgent need to make better use of existing evidence to inform policymaking and accelerate SDG progress. They emphasized that while vast amounts of research exist, much of it remains underutilized or inaccessible to decision-makers. To address this, the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition was formed to unite UN agencies, governments, and other partners in synthesizing and disseminating actionable evidence on SDG implementation.

Major funding commitments were announced by the UK government and Wellcome Trust to support “living” evidence syntheses that are continuously updated using AI and other technologies. Speakers stressed the importance of making these efforts globally inclusive, ensuring evidence is accessible and relevant for decision-makers worldwide, especially in developing countries.

The discussion highlighted the transformative potential of AI and other digital technologies in accelerating evidence synthesis and use, while also cautioning that responsible innovation is crucial to avoid exacerbating inequalities. Speakers called for increased international collaboration and harmonization of evidence efforts globally.

Youth representatives emphasized the importance of including diverse voices, especially young people, in evidence production and decision-making processes. Overall, the event showcased a shared commitment to leveraging evidence more effectively to drive SDG progress through 2030 and beyond.

Keypoints

Major discussion points:

– The importance of evidence synthesis and making research findings more accessible to policymakers to accelerate progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

– Announcements of major funding commitments from the UK government and Wellcome Trust to support AI-driven evidence synthesis efforts

– The need for international collaboration and harmonized global efforts to make evidence more timely, relevant and equitable

– The role of artificial intelligence in transforming evidence synthesis, while ensuring responsible and ethical use

– Ensuring evidence reaches all countries and populations, including youth and vulnerable groups

Overall purpose:

The discussion aimed to highlight the critical role of evidence in accelerating progress on the SDGs and to announce new initiatives and funding to improve the synthesis and accessibility of evidence for policymakers globally.

Tone:

The tone was largely optimistic and forward-looking, with speakers expressing excitement about the potential for new technologies and collaborations to transform evidence use. There was also a sense of urgency given the short timeframe to achieve the SDGs by 2030. The tone became more reflective and aspirational when youth representatives spoke near the end, emphasizing the importance of including future generations in decision-making.

Speakers

Moderator/Facilitator:

– Andrea Cook – Executive Director of the UN Sustainable Development Group Systemwide Evaluation Office

Speakers:

– Bob Rae – President of the UN Economic and Social Council and Canada’s permanent representative to the UN

– Simplex Chitiola Banda – Malawi’s Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs

– Emran Mian – Director General for Digital Technologies and Telecoms at the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

– Lord Patrick Vallance (via video) – UK Minister of State for Science, Research, and Innovation

– Isabelle Mercier – Director of the Independent Evaluation Office at UNDP and Co-Chair of the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition

– John Lavis – Co-Lead of the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges

– John-Arne Røttingen – Chief Executive Officer of the Wellcome Trust

РAna Jim̩nez de la Hoz РAmbassador from Spain

– Martin Kimani – Executive Director of NYU’s Center on International Cooperation and Kenya’s former permanent representative to the UN

– Justine Germo Nzweundji – Member of the chairing committee of INGSA in Africa

– Karla Soares-Weiser – Editor-in-Chief of Cochrane

– Will Moy – Chief Executive Officer of the Campbell Collaboration

– Krishna Kishore Pandalaneni – Master of Public Administration student at Columbia University

– Reuben Pohl – Medical student at Oxford University and Yale

– Kerry Albright – Principal Advisor and Deputy Director at the UNICEF Evaluation Office and Co-Chair of the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition

The speakers represent a diverse range of expertise including diplomacy, finance, science and technology policy, evidence synthesis, international development, healthcare, and youth perspectives.

Accelerating Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals through Evidence Synthesis and International Collaboration

A high-level discussion brought together representatives from governments, the UN, academia, and civil society to explore how evidence synthesis and new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) can support achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The event, moderated by Andrea Cook, the first Executive Director of the UN Sustainable Development Group Systemwide Evaluation Office, focused on improving access to evidence and fostering international collaboration to accelerate SDG progress.

Key Themes and Agreements

1. Importance of Evidence Synthesis for SDG Progress

There was strong consensus among speakers on the critical role of evidence synthesis in driving SDG achievement. Andrea Cook, Simplex Chitiola Banda, Bob Rae, Isabelle Mercier, and John-Arne Røttingen all emphasised how synthesising research findings can help identify effective interventions and policies. Banda noted that evidence synthesis can illuminate what works and what doesn’t, while Rae stressed the importance of international collaboration in these efforts.

However, speakers also highlighted significant challenges in accessing and using evidence for policymaking. Mercier pointed out that evidence is often scattered and underutilised, while Martin Kimani noted that policymakers face time constraints in accessing relevant information. Justine Germo Nzweundji raised the issue of language and cultural barriers affecting evidence accessibility, and Karla Soares-Weiser emphasised the need for evidence synthesis to be timely and relevant.

2. Role of Technology and AI in Enhancing Evidence Synthesis

Lord Patrick Vallance and John-Arne Røttingen discussed the potential of AI and technology to improve evidence synthesis capabilities. However, Bob Rae cautioned about existing inequalities in access to digital technologies and AI, highlighting the need to ensure that technological advancements benefit all countries and populations.

3. Major Initiatives and Investments

Several significant announcements were made during the discussion:

– Formation of the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition to unite UN agencies, governments, and other partners in synthesising and disseminating actionable evidence on SDG implementation (Isabelle Mercier). Specific synthesis reports include:

• Completed report on SDG 17 Partnership Pillar

• Ongoing synthesis on the Peace Pillar (SDG 16.1 and 16.4)

• Upcoming synthesis on the People Pillar (SDGs 1-5)

• Plans for synthesis on the Planet Pillar (SDGs 6, 12-15)

– UK government investment of £11.5 million in AI-driven evidence synthesis (Lord Vallance), with three main aims:

• Creating an AI-based approach for analyzing evidence

• Developing AI-supported evidence synthesis products

• Improving accessibility and dissemination of synthesized evidence

– Wellcome Trust commitment of £45 million over five years to support “living” evidence syntheses that are continuously updated using AI and other technologies (John-Arne Røttingen)

– Ongoing support from Cochrane and the Campbell Collaboration for global evidence synthesis efforts (Karla Soares-Weiser, Will Moy). Cochrane’s new scientific strategy focuses on SDG-related areas: maternal, newborn, and child health; infectious disease; climate health; and multiple chronic conditions.

– Spain’s efforts to champion localisation of SDGs and evidence use (Ana Jiménez de la Hoz)

4. Youth Involvement and Diverse Perspectives

Krishna Kishore Pandalaneni and Reuben Pohl, representing youth perspectives, emphasised the importance of involving young people in decision-making processes and ensuring that evidence serves those most affected by policies, particularly future generations. Pohl highlighted the potential of citizen science initiatives to bridge communities and researchers, while both speakers stressed the need for diversity in evidence production and sharing.

5. Strengthening the Science-Policy Interface

Justine Germo Nzweundji highlighted the role of INGSA (International Network for Governmental Science Advice) in strengthening the science-policy interface, emphasizing its importance in bridging the gap between evidence producers and policymakers.

Areas of Partial Agreement and Unresolved Issues

While there were no significant disagreements among speakers, some nuanced perspectives emerged:

– Bob Rae and Lord Vallance both acknowledged the importance of AI and technology in evidence synthesis, but Rae emphasised existing inequalities in access to these technologies, while Vallance focused more on their potential benefits.

– The discussion revealed unresolved questions about ensuring equitable access to AI and digital technologies across all countries, effectively integrating local context and knowledge into global evidence synthesis, and balancing the speed of AI-driven synthesis with the need for rigorous and ethical evidence production.

Thought-Provoking Comments and Future Directions

Several speakers made particularly impactful statements that shaped the discussion:

– John Lavis painted a vivid picture of the potential for comprehensive, easily accessible evidence on education interventions, demonstrating how synthesised evidence could be made actionable for decision-makers.

– Karla Soares-Weiser thoughtfully addressed both the opportunities and challenges presented by AI in evidence synthesis, emphasising the need for proper regulation, ethical use, and collaboration.

– Bob Rae powerfully framed the SDGs as fundamental human needs and highlighted the urgency of leveraging new technologies to address global inequalities.

– John-Arne Røttingen’s announcement of significant funding from the Wellcome Trust demonstrated concrete commitment to the ideas being discussed and shifted the conversation towards practical implementation.

These comments collectively moved the discussion from theoretical concepts to practical action, while maintaining focus on the ultimate goal of improving human lives through better use of evidence in pursuit of the SDGs.

Conclusion and Next Steps

The discussion showcased a shared commitment to leveraging evidence more effectively to drive SDG progress through 2030 and beyond. Key action items include the development of synthesis reports on various SDG topics by the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition, special meetings on AI and evidence use for SDGs called by the ECOSOC President, and ongoing support for global evidence synthesis efforts from organisations like Cochrane and the Campbell Collaboration.

Moving forward, stakeholders will need to address challenges such as ensuring equitable access to AI and digital technologies, integrating local context into global evidence synthesis, and sustainably funding and coordinating global evidence synthesis efforts beyond initial investments. The discussion highlighted the need for continued dialogue and diverse approaches to effectively harness evidence and technology in service of the SDGs.

The event concluded with an announcement by Kerry Albright about a closing reception at the UK Consulate for pre-registered attendees, providing an opportunity for further networking and discussion.

Andrea Cook: Thank you. So good afternoon, everyone. His Excellency Honourable Simplex Chitiola Banda, Her Excellency Minister Zainab Chukan, His Excellency Ambassador Bob Rae, Director General Emran Mian, distinguished guests, esteemed colleagues, and passionate advocates for a better world. Good afternoon. I am Andrea Cook, appointed by the Secretary General one year ago as the first Executive Director of the United Nations Sustainable Development Group Systemwide Evaluation Office. On behalf of the organizing team from Malawi, the United Kingdom, INGSA, and the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition, I warmly welcome you all to this crucial event towards 2030 and beyond, accelerating the SDGs through access to evidence on what works. We are honored today to have such a distinguished group of leaders and experts gathered here and such a full and engaged room. It’s so exciting. So we’re here to explore the transformative power of science, digital technologies, artificial intelligence, and international collaboration to bridge the gap and bring evidence to the fore at global, regional, national, and local level to help drive us forwards to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. A special thanks to our esteemed ministers, Honourable Simplex Chitra Labanda from Malawi and Lord Patrick Vallance from the United Kingdom, and His Excellency Ambassador Bob Rae, the President of the Economic and Social Council, for their leadership and commitment and for their invaluable contributions to this crucial dialogue. I especially thank the distinguished presenters and panelists from Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Germany, India, Norway, Spain, and the United Kingdom, who bring their commitment and the perspective of different and diverse organizations to our deliberations. This event aligns seamlessly with the spirit and the vision of the greatly anticipated impact for the future, emphasizing the critical role of knowledge and the science policy interface in looking at how to improve the access of policymakers and decision makers to better evidence to accelerate the achievement of the global goals. Today we will delve into the groundbreaking work of the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition, which is a testament to the power of partnership and collaboration. We will also hear from two major research funders and from the UK Research and Innovation and the Wellcome Trust about significant new funding commitments that will be used to bring together all the existing evidence on what works, including previously untapped evaluative evidence to make it more useful for decision makers across the world to help achieve the SDGs. This initiative is an incredible demonstration of the Secretary General’s vision of how artificial intelligence and science can boost the SDGs for all countries, and also his recognition of the immense value of partnerships between UN agencies, national governments, philanthropies and academia that go beyond mere financing to encompass technical resources and expertise. Today presents a significant opportunity to forge new collaborations across science, evidence and policy communities. As Soren Kierkegaard wisely said, life can only be… understood backwards but it must be lived forwards. As we look towards 2030 and beyond we have the potential to seize and share knowledge and insight rooted in more credible and reliable evidence to shape a better future in a more sustainable and equitable world. Up with that it’s now my honor to introduce Bob Ray the president of the UN Economic and Social Council and Canada’s permanent representative to the United Nations to open our side event. Ambassador Rae’s distinguished career spans law, public policy and diplomacy making him uniquely positioned to highlight the critical role of evidence in addressing global challenges. Over to you, thank you.

Bob Rae: Thank you very much Andrea it’s a great pleasure to be here and to be in such a illustrious company. I suspect that Soren Kierkegaard has not been quoted in this place since since Dag Hammarskjöld was the Secretary General and if anybody was any doubt about how serious this conversation is we have Kierkegaard looking over us to tell us what we’re doing right or wrong. It really is a pleasure to be here. When I was invited to do this many of my staff said why do you why do you want to do this one I mean not no offense but I get asked I get asked to do so many of these things now nothing to do with me it’s just to do with my title and I said because this happens to be one of the most important questions that we’re facing in the world today and that is that we know what needs to be done and we know how it can be done but gathering this information and this evidence and marshalling it and putting it into battle is really the challenge that we face. We go to a bewildering number of meetings during these action days and I one of my first ones this morning I think this is my eighth meeting was a really interesting discussion not that this isn’t going to be an interesting discussion but I was at a really interesting discussion between among the SDG advocates and my prime minister was there so I had to be at that one and the most I thought the most interesting presentation was by the president of Microsoft, because he pointed out that the invention of electricity took place 150 years ago. The first power plant was built in Manhattan well before the end of the 19th century. We still have hundreds of millions of people living in the world, particularly in the continent of Africa, who do not have access to electricity. So if you think of artificial intelligence, and my offhand view about artificial intelligence is better than no intelligence at all, but when you think about artificial intelligence, it requires enormous investments in hardware and in software in order to be able to have the impact that it has. There will be central places where this is done, and we’re at the same risk that we were at with the discovery of electricity, and that is that those who have the money and the financing to put it at the center of their economic activity will explode in terms of their ability to advance and take advantage of it, and those who do not have this access will be at risk of falling even further behind than they are today. And so we’re at a real inflection point in the life of the world. We have a new technology that’s coming available. We have a challenge before us with respect to the sustainable development goals, which, as I call them, are really just the common sense of humankind. What do we need to be able to do in order to live decent lives? That’s what the sustainable development goals are, nothing more and nothing less. But if we do not marshal all these resources, we will be even worse off, frankly, than we are today in terms of the fundamental challenge, which is not that we don’t have prosperity among us. We do. Not that we don’t have exciting technological discussion going on. We all do. The problem is we don’t have available to everyone, and many people are being left badly behind. So we are at an inflection point because I do think that this next round of technological innovation will either have the capacity to accelerate all of us or will have the ability to accelerate some of us and leave others even further behind than they are now. I had the honour when I first came here to co-chair the co-facilitation of the Doha Declaration, which is the declaration of the least developed countries in the world. At that time, we discovered, found and said and told other members of the UN that less than 15 per cent of LDCs had access to the technical and financial resources required to implement advanced digital technologies, extending their participation severely in global digital markets. Global investments in AI are projected to reach $500 billion by 2024. That’s a lot, $500 billion, when you consider that the global economy is $100 trillion. That’s a significant amount of money. Most of these investments were concentrated in high-income countries. So those in the least developed countries and even in middle-income countries have been left behind. We know that in some SIDs, less than 20% of the workforce had basic digital literacy. About 19% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa, prominently LDCs and LLDCs, about 200 million people, live outside of mobile broadband coverage without any access at all. And globally, women are 19% less likely than men to use the internet. And less than 25% of LDCs have comprehensive policies addressing digital inclusion for women and marginalized groups. The central challenge that we face is twofold. One is how do we mobilize our institutions to respond to this crisis? But the second one is how do we mobilize public opinion in all of our countries to care about whether this will or will not be done? At the same meeting this morning, as the Secretary General said, if we leave things on their own and don’t intervene successfully to change the pattern of development and to change the pace of development and the focus of development, inequality will only get worse. This is not some speculative comment. This is a reality. But the other half of the challenge that we face is that we will – things are going to get worse unless we’re able to combat the powerful sources of disinformation, misogyny, patriarchy, prejudice, hate, which are permeating our social media. yes permeating our politics and we have to respond to it with a very vigorous commitment not only to our values but to science and to information and to facts to not leave behind the heritage that we have accumulated that we know that all of these things are right and all that that it goes against it is actually wrong and the truth is a real thing not a made-up thing it’s a real thing people speak today of my truth and your truth no I mean David Hume would be rolling over in his grave some things are true and other things are not true and we have to keep on encountering this as the president this year of ECOSOC I have the chance to call a couple of special meetings and I’m going to be calling a special meeting on AI it’s not going to focus on AI governance it’s going to focus on this question access to the to the investments that are going to be required in every corner of the globe in order to ensure that we do not get swamped by another wave of inequality second the STI forum will be an opportunity for innovators and thinkers to come together on how to address inequalities and access to technologies and proposed solutions and we’re also going to be using the high-level political forum to get to get on to this question of how we can make sure that the science-based information that’s present is built into and baked into our policies and baked into what agencies and what the UN system itself does so I’m delighted to be here I’m delighted to be able to hear what people have to say and I’m delighted to be able to participate in these discussions I want to assure you that we we are going to be taking this cause up because we really I really do think that it’s a critical issue for the UN system as a whole but more importantly than just the UN system it’s more important for humankind for all of all of us it’s important for us to recognize this is a point at which choices have to be made decisions have to be made and for heaven’s sake let’s base those decisions on evidence on facts on knowledge on information and yes on truth thank you very much

Andrea Cook: Thank you, Ambassador Rae, for your insightful opening remarks and throwing down the challenge. We really appreciate your leadership in highlighting the priorities of yourself and the Economic and Social Council and to set the scene for the critical issues that relate to this important discussion today. From the perspective of the Republic of Malawi, from the front lines of policy implementation, we welcome His Excellency the Honourable Simplex Tjotiola Banda, Malawi’s Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs. His expertise in international trade and development economics highlights the crucial link between evidence and effective policymaking. Thank you. Over to you, Minister Banda.

Simplex Chitiola Banda: Thank you very much and good afternoon to all. As alluded to by the coordinator, I’m Simplex Chitiola Banda, Malawi’s Finance Minister. Your Excellencies, distinct delegates, partners and audience members, we’ve just heard from the previous speaker about the importance of decision makers having access to timely and reliable evidence. And we’ll hear more, I hope so, about how research and innovation can drive national growth, development and well-being, and how artificial intelligence, AI, can help speed up our important work. With a mere six years to go until 2030, it is imperative to speed up our work in all these areas to accelerate progress towards the SDGs. We need to employ the newest technology advances to fast-track our work wherever possible. We need to make better use of evidence for more effective policymaking and ensure that this evidence is available. to everybody. This requires, as alluded to by us all, to connect and work together more closely. Only through substantial international collaboration, by sharing the lessons we learn on our journey to solve our most pressing challenges, can we ensure that our efforts have the most impact and for the benefit of everybody. Malawi strongly believes in the transformative power of evidence, technology and cooperation. These, ladies and gentlemen, are vital to achieve the Malawi 2063 and ensure sustainable economic growth and development. We have worked closely with the United Nations system on our vision, which sets out a clear path to realizing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. We are committed to achieving the aspirations of the Malawi 2063 and the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development. We are convinced that the joining forces with stakeholders from all sectors will be able to get back on track and accelerate progress towards the global goals in these crucial years until 2030. Ladies and gentlemen, Malawi is proud to demonstrate its commitment to the 2030 Agenda, evidence-based policymaking and meaningful international cooperation and partnership on many occasions. Just last year, we proudly co-sponsored the UN General Assembly Resolution on Strengthening Voluntary National Reviews through country-led evaluation, which encourages all member states to use the evidence from evaluations to their decision-making to achieve their global goals. This commitment is why Malawi has been a strong advocate for the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition and a member of the Steering Committee since its inception. One year ago, together with Panama and our coalition partners, we proudly sponsored an event at SDG Summit to launch the first evidence synthesis on SDG 17 Partnership Pillar. This report provided concrete evidence of how strong international collaboration, fair trade and meaningful partnerships can characterize growth and progress for the benefit of everybody. One year later, Malawi has again the pleasure of co-sponsoring an important event with the UK Government, the United Nations and International Network for Governmental Science Advice. But today, we come together as part of an even bigger and stronger coalition. Through our combined efforts, we are pleased to welcome new influential and committed partners, including global leaders in the realm of evidence, technology and innovation. I am, therefore, very much looking forward to hearing about their vision from our distinguished speakers today, your excellencies, distinguished representatives, partners, and colleagues. I hope this session will persuade and inspire you, persuade you of the key role that cutting-edge technology, accessible evidence, and meaningful collaboration can play in addressing the complex challenges we face today. I, therefore, urge you to become part of this global initiative, making available what you have learned from your efforts to achieve global goals. I advocate for the better use of evidence for policymaking and engage with partners from different sectors and disciplines. Together, we will find the new solutions needed to create a more just, equitable, and prosperous future. Thank you for your attention.

Andrea Cook: Thank you, Minister Banda, for sharing Malawi’s invaluable perspective on the importance of international collaboration and evidence-based policymaking for achievement of the SDGs. We’re privileged to move to the United Kingdom, our main other sponsoring partner, and we’re privileged to have a video message by His Excellency Lord Patrick Vallance, the United Kingdom Minister of State for Science, Research, and Innovation. With a background as both clinical academic and a leader in pharmaceutical research and development, Lord Vallance will share the UK government’s perspective on the transformative power of international scientific collaboration and evidence synthesis. We request Emran Mian, the Director General for Digital Technologies and Telecoms at the Department for Science. innovation and technology in the United Kingdom, to represent Lord Patrick Vallance, who unfortunately couldn’t be here with us in person today. And he’s very disappointed not to be here. Over to you.

Emran Mian: Thank you very much. And yes, he sends his apologies, though I think we will briefly hear from him on a video. So look, I’ve been sitting here feeling rather lazy because unlike my colleague next to me, I haven’t been to eight events today. I’ve done a mere four. But I think already from four events today, it’s feeling to me that there’s a consistent theme running through this summit, about the way in which research and innovation is going to underline our progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. And it’s that theme I just want to talk a little bit about. The UK role in this, as well as being really happy to co-sponsor this event with Malawi, is expressed partly through our international science partnerships, which is over 300 million pounds of funding that we use to put research and innovation at the heart of our international relationships. We have also been collaborating with Canada and a set of African civil society organizations and universities to begin to create an AI for development program. And the aim of this is to create safe, inclusive, and responsible AI ecosystems in Africa. Through the UK Economic and Social Research Council, we’ve also been supporting the production of a new global evidence report, published just last week, which sets out a blueprint for better international collaboration on synthesizing and using evidence. And this, I feel, is a really important point, that as well as governments helping to support the production of science, we need to help to support the synthesizing of the evidence that science provides. And this is something that I think often we under-invest in collectively. And as a consequence, scientific… remains the preserve of those who create it doesn’t sufficiently get to policymakers and when it does get to policymakers perhaps disproportionately gets to policymakers in only in certain countries and not globally. There are exceptions to this. I think we’ve got a lot to learn from health sciences where a lot of this synthesis work already happens. The work of the the Cochrane organization, those collaborations I think are a real lodestar here in terms of how you can do this work. Inspired by that work last year the UK government and the Gates Foundation launched the Juno Evidence Alliance. This is the world’s first evidence synthesis network for agriculture and food systems and as people in this room know as climate change increasingly affects vulnerable farmers and rural communities these synthesis methods become all the more important to help policymakers to prioritize and apply research findings to drive the action that is needed. In fact Juno’s most recent report found that there was a 60% growth in research publications in agri-food overall but very low levels of research targeting the poorest, hungriest and most climate vulnerable countries. So the power of evidence synthesis is not only to show what evidence we have but also to show what evidence we don’t have and what are the gaps that we need to work together to fill. AI is also a tool by which we can do more to fill those gaps and I’m going to hand over to the video of Lord Velens to talk about what we want to do next in that space.

Lord Vallance: Hello and my apologies that I’ve not been able to join you in person today because this is a really exciting moment for the use of evidence synthesis for global food. Today it’s my pleasure to announce that the UK government in strategic partnership with the UN will be making an initial investment of £11.5 million in a new program to catalyze a step change in AI-driven evidence synthesis. This opportunity has been launched by UK Research and Innovation, led by the Economic and Social Research Council. Our vision is to transform government leaders’ access to accurate, up-to-date and accessible summaries of the existing evidence base in key policy areas. Specifically, we have three aims. The first, to work with the best developers to create a powerful, AI-based approach for analysing and interpreting the latest evidence. Second, to create a comprehensive suite of AI-supported evidence synthesis products centred on topics of international interest and, of course, importance. This includes evidence and gap maps that allow decision makers to visualise the quantity and quality of relative evidence, and living evidence reviews that provide up-to-date evidence synthesis that meets the needs of national decision makers and doesn’t become outdated. And the third, we want to improve the accessibility, presentation and dissemination of synthesised evidence, with a focus on collaborating with decision makers and undertaking user testing to ensure products are designed and distributed in formats primed for policymaking. And that’s really important, that primed for policymaking. Partnership and global coordination sit at the heart of our plans. We want to build on, not duplicate, existing efforts. It is why we have partnered with the UN-led SDG Synthesis Coalition, which I understand you’ll hear much more about today. The effort we fund will also need to collaborate with existing evidence infrastructure to achieve collective impact. That includes investments made by many of the organisations in this room, like the Wellcome Trust, who you will hear from, who have shown really significant leadership in this space. I hope that together we can achieve real progress in accelerating access to evidence on what works, and indeed on what doesn’t. doesn’t in achieving the SDGs.

Andrea Cook: Thank you Director-General Mian for representing Lord Vallance and for highlighting the United Kingdom Government’s commitment to advancing evidence-based solutions through international collaboration and AI-driven innovation. With that, once again, we extend our sincere thanks to our distinguished speakers from Canada, the United Kingdom and Malawi for their valuable contributions. Now let’s transition to the next segment of our programme and please join me in welcoming Isabelle Mercier, John Lavis and John Arnaud Rottingham. As we continue to explore the crucial role of evidence in accelerating progress towards the SDGs, our esteemed speakers will share unique perspectives and insights. Firstly, we have Isabel Mercier, the Director of the Independent Evaluation Office at UNDP and Co-Chair of the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition. Isabelle will provide an overview of the Coalition’s ambitious objectives and the impactful work it has accomplished to date. Then after Isabel, we will hear from John Lavis, the Co-Lead of the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges. John will outline the exciting opportunities ahead for the Coalition and how it can align with the collective vision of the Global Evidence Commission to accelerate progress. And then finally, we will hear from John-Arne Røttingen, the Chief Executive Officer of the Wellcome Trust, who will share the Wellcome Trust’s perspectives on critical needs for global collaboration and provide insights into their future priorities in this area. And in this connection, we’ll be very excited to hear about the commitments that are being made and announced today from the Wellcome Trust to support this vital work. So over to you, first of all, Isabel. Thank you.

Isabelle Mercier: Thank you, Andrea. Excellencies, colleagues, friends, good afternoon. It’s a real pleasure for me to be here today. and to address such a distinguished group. I’m going to share with you the story of the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition, how it came to be, the work we’re doing, and the transformative impact we believe it can have on the global efforts to achieve these sustainable development goals. The coalition was formed in 2022 during a time we all remember when COVID-19 pandemic forced a temporary halt in primary research across international development evaluation. In that pause, my community of evaluators found an opportunity for reflection. We realized there was an untapped wealth of insights buried in underused research. Research lost in the noise, scattered across platforms, and forgotten in databases. This wasn’t irrelevant research, it was valuable, but it was overlooked. So we’ve made something that looked impossible happen. We’ve united 45 UN agencies, plus governments, academic institutions, synthesis networks, multilateral banks, and private sector partners around a vision to turn this fragmented and underused information into structured, accessible, and actionable insights that can accelerate progress towards the SDGs and answer critical questions. What works, for whom, and where? And let me tell you, this collaboration is transforming how we approach the challenge of achieving the SDGs. What sets the coalition apart is not just the concept of an evidence ecosystem. This idea isn’t new. What’s new is the intensity, ambition, and scale at which we’re building it. We’re creating a global evidence framework for the SDGs, an enduring commitment also to work together to address the challenges of different systems and accountabilities. Two major factors have made this possible. Advancements in technology and artificial intelligence, and more importantly, people. People who are breaking silos and collaborating even when the incentives say otherwise. The members of the coalition don’t just generate evidence. They champion it, ensuring that this evidence is used to take decisions that are made in their countries, in their regions, in their cities. The goal is to ensure that quality evidence is not only noticed, but used to inform the decisions that shape our future. We know that you, our leaders, face complex, urgent challenges, and that you need the best evidence to make informed choices. The coalition is here to respond to that need. Our coalition knows who to talk to and how to promote a dialogue, which is a unique strength within the UN system. In the past year, we’ve pooled resources, we’ve standardized methodologies, and we’ve intensified our commitment to driving the use of synthesis through every accessible channel. And we’ve managed to build a very dynamic space where academic knowledge meets real world policy needs, where evidence from UN process evaluations and impact evaluations by academics are synthesized and discussed with government officials, bringing the best insights to the global stage. After our first report on SDG 17, I’m excited to share that the coalition is now developing its first synthesis under the Peace Pillar. The synthesis, which consolidates evidence from impact evaluations and UN assessments, will deliver valuable insights and strategies for reducing homicides and conflict-related deaths with a specific focus on SDG target 16.1, reducing all forms of violence, and 16.4, curbing illicit financial and arms flows. The synthesis report, which will be made available in November 2024, will show which interventions are most effective and, importantly, why they succeeded. This will help accelerate progress toward these targets. Thomas Duhoup, I don’t know where he is. I think he’s in this room somewhere. The synthesis team leader from the American Institutes for Research is present in the audience. He’s working on this. Please feel free. I hope you don’t mind I’m saying this, Thomas. Feel free to approach him with any questions you have. In the meantime, I encourage you to explore our protocol and interim brief, which are available on our website. are available on the SDG Synthesis Coalition website and offer a detailed update on the evidence gathered so far. We’ve also developed two interactive visual evidence map that showcase the breadth of evaluative evidence on these topics. And I think there’s a QR code, and I think if you click on it, it’ll bring you to that. As for the other reports, I’m pleased to share that we’ll soon begin working on a synthesis of people pillar encompassing SDGs one through five, which will examine the implementation and effectiveness of social protection interventions aimed at reaching those most in need. We’re also currently completing a scoping consultation process to identify key thematic priorities for future living syntheses under all pillars, including the planet pillar, which covers SDGs six and 12 through 15, which is crucial due to the interconnectedness of ecosystems, human health, and global stability with all other SDGs. These reports are going to deliver valuable messages. At the same time, we’ve also learned that one-off syntheses like these will unlikely be enough. Decision-making is ongoing, and new evidence is constantly emerging. So what excites me even more is something that my friend here, John Lavis, will talk about in just a minute, and which is the coalition’s vision of a global bank of living syntheses. Powered by technology and AI, the coalition will continually update and refine insights, offering a well-structured, high-quality resource to decision-makers at all levels. So I hope you’re as excited and thrilled about this work as I am. Together, I believe we can be the change-makers, the bridge-builders, and advocates for a future where no one’s left behind. So now, with your permission, Andrea, I’ll turn the floor over to John. Thank you.

John Lavis: That was super. Thanks very much, Isabel. Distinguished guests and colleagues, I’m absolutely thrilled to be here today, and I want to start by applauding the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition. As somebody who’s labored for 30 years to try to get evidence into the hands of decision-makers, to have 45 UN agencies, independent. evaluation offices stand up and say, we want to foreground evaluations and evidence synthesis in our work. We want to make sure they’re used and we want to work with countries to support their use is really a game changer. And we’re really grateful to see that leadership coming from the UN. For the last three and a half years, I’ve co-led something called the Global Evidence Commission. And we felt that during COVID with evidence, so many things went well, but so many things went poorly. And we desperately needed to learn the lessons from that experience going forward so we can better deal with things during normal times and be prepared to pivot during crises. And we wanted to talk about how we had radical improvements, radically more timely, radically more relevant, radically more affordable, living evidence synthesis, syntheses that are continuously updated. Most recently, we led a consensus building process, brought together the evidence leaders from across the globe, the majority of whom are in the global south, to agree on six features of the future that we think are absolutely essential if we’re going to use evidence to power change and to accelerate progress with the SDGs. If we pull up the slide, I’m going to show you those six features. We call them Show Me the Evidence. And regrettably, that is also the title of a book about the Obama administration’s use of evidence. So we are buried way, way down in a Google search. The feature most relevant today is harmonized efforts globally that make it easier to learn from others around the world. And this, again, we really think is a path-breaking opportunity. But what exactly does it mean to do this? How do we harmonize efforts globally? Well, one piece of it is the platform at the base of this simple structure. That’s the infrastructure. We need to work with users across the UN system, with policymakers in member states, with civil society groups to understand their questions. We need to build capacity to produce these living evidence syntheses and shift their production and leadership for their development to the global south. We need platforms for data sharing and reusing. During COVID, we often had hundreds of rapid reviews on the exact same topic. Over and over again, people extracted data from studies, did risk-bias assessments, no sharing. That has to stop. We also need responsible innovation in tools and methods. One of the hallmarks of the evidence synthesis community is doing things systematically and transparently. And as AI can be used safely and responsibly in workflows, this will be incorporated. But we don’t want to introduce it prematurely when it runs the risk of increasing discrimination or causing other problems. That’s the infrastructure. And you’ll soon be hearing from Jan-Arne about a breathtaking investment in that infrastructure that will power this work around the globe across all sectors. Then we have funders coming forward, and you’ve heard about UKRI coming forward with with a bold investment in living evidence syntheses about accelerating progress towards the SDGs. We anticipate that in future, welcome in its three solution areas of climate and health, mental health and infectious disease will also be commissioning living evidence syntheses. But we have in Stee and Westlake, the chief executive of ESRC and Jan-Arne Rottingen, who you’ll hear from shortly, a desire to bring many other funders to the table so we can eventually cover all of the big questions over time related to the SDGs. We also need people investing in ways of serving up these actionable insights for different sectors, for different types of decision makers, for different geographies. We are on the cusp of having every impact study in the world about education with all the data extracted, with all the risk of bias assessments done. And once that’s done, it can be served up in many different ways. It can be served up by best buys. It can be served up by broad approach like peer tutoring. It can be served up by branded programs. So if politicians are being lobbied, they can look to see what the evidence is. So really exciting. This is the total vision. Today you’ll hear about two investments, and we hope to see many more coming forward, all of which will help to accelerate progress towards the SDGs. But the magic happens when that global system is working well and we have people on the ground in every country who can pull together the many forms of needed evidence when political windows of opportunity open. I have a colleague, Laura Boera, in Brazil, colleague Rona Majumbi was in Uganda, now in Malawi, a colleague Kerry in Canada. They all run rapid evidence support shops for their respective governments. People can call them up and say in two business days, I need all the best evidence systematically pulled together on this topic. In five business days, I need all the evidence on this topic. They have to pull together many forms of local evidence. What this will allow them to do is learn from other countries around the world and introduce those actionable insights from other settings. And this is now going to be so much more efficient for them. If I give you just one example, in the last 15 months, my colleague Kerry in Canada has had nine requests related to climate. Because of the generosity of a team in Berlin who makes available all of the data for their living evidence syntheses, she could pull down the relevant studies, contextualize it to the Canadian context, and deliver it in that highly contextualized form on the exact question that was asked. This should become the new normal. It should not be a one-off opportunity. So that’s what we’re talking about. The Global SDG Synthesis Coalition hopes that a year out, we have living evidence syntheses on the highest priority SDG questions of our time. Three years out, we’re answering most of the big questions. Six years out, we’ve got the entire spectrum covered, and we’re ready for 2030 and beyond. So thank you to the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition for its leadership. Thank you to these two visionary funders for setting us on a bold path. I am really excited about the future, and I hope you’ll join me in making that future a reality. Thank you.

John-Arne Røttingen: Thank you, John. Excellencies, colleagues, it’s great to follow. And we are here really to focus on how to make progress on some of the most pressing challenges we face in the world, as we have heard from many of the speakers. And easy access to up-to-date scientific evidence is vital for global progress. But as we have heard, the process of synthesising that information to deliver rigorous up-to-date summaries of the state of our knowledge is slow and labour-intensive. That bottleneck is holding back development. This is in a context, and we have heard about it from Malawi, we have short time to 2030 and to deliver on our SDG commitments, and we are not on track. As the scientific journal Nature actually put earlier this week in an editorial, and we heard from Isabelle as well, there’s part of the problem is that tens of thousands of research papers and evaluations are gathering dust in institutional vaults. Not physical anymore, but digital. But still… that they are not used, and rather than being available to inform policy and practice around the world. Just an example, infectious disease interventions in, around the Zika outbreak in South America in 2015 was a big challenge. A systematic review begun in May 2016 and identified and synthesized more than 700 papers on the topic, but by the time the review came out in January 2017, a further 1,400 papers had been published and had not been integrated in that review, so it meant it was outdated at the day of publication. We also saw during the COVID-19 pandemic, as John just mentioned, that yes, there were a lot of important efforts around the world in synthesizing research evidence, but they were duplicative. There were some great efforts in doing it together, but most countries did it alone. And did it the same, so that is both inefficient and it’s costly. So Wellcome Trust, in collaboration with the UN, we really hope to improve these systems for better timeliness and resource use with a new evidence synthesis infrastructure collaborative. So today I am announcing that Wellcome’s intention is to provide around 45 million pounds, around $60 million over the coming five years to boost what we can call living evidence synthesis. And several inputs will emerge through this process. However, more of this funding will be sought out through Funding Extremes, which John had just described by the others. Our funding will address three priorities. First, user engagement and capacity building, both of which will be supported through existing knowledge brokers who have trusted relationships with policy makers and the stakeholders in their respective countries. Second, platforms for data sharing and reuse, can reuse these data many times over and be much more efficient. And third, responsible innovation in tools and methods, which will include supporting the use of AI tools in work. flows, where it can be done safely, transparently, and responsibly, and crucially, without worsening discrimination or perpetuating inequities. So a community of different organizations already undertake these living evidence synthesis. We heard about the coalition, but there’s little support for shared foundational work so that we can be more effective together. Partnership and global coordination sit at the heart of our plans. We want to build on, definitely not duplicate, existing efforts. So we warmly welcome Lord Patrick Wallen’s announcement just now on funding from the UK government. We want to work with UK Economic and Social Research Council to bring together other research funders in a more joined-up approach to supporting this important work internationally. These are global public goods. It doesn’t make sense if we cannot really collectively invest. So we are just two funders now today around the table. Others are funding other parts of this ecosystem, but we need to do it more joined up. We will work closely with all actors in the area of living evidence, such as the Cochrane and Campbell collaborations, and collaborate with the UN Global Synthesis Coalition. So this system-wide investment from our end will complement existing and future investments we already do on specific areas, like, as John said, climate and health, mental health, and infectious diseases. And we hope other funders will take other priority areas within health, but indeed across all of the SDGs. It’s crucial that evidence professionals can spend less time on the laborious elements of conducting reviews, and more on understanding problems, engaging with policymakers. We know that that’s the major gap in really bringing evidence to decisions and implementation. And then to create products that will be genuinely useful to drive change in that local context. Because putting the best and timely evidence in the hands of decision-makers who need it is how science can best help us solve the urgent challenges. to be faced. So thank you.

Andrea Cook: So thank you Isabelle, John and John-Arne for your insightful and inspiring presentations on what may be possible and some of the resources that can come together to help to deliver that. It’s truly inspiring. I hope everyone else is as inspired as I am sitting around this table today. So now we’re going to delve deeper into the perspectives of key stakeholders in this endeavor and first of all we will turn to Ambassador Ana Jiménez de la Hoz from Spain who is going to explain how this work is of interest to Spain to share insights on why and also Spain’s involvement in the global SDG synthesis coalition as a founder and how that connects with the the vision for global SDG achievement. Over to you Ana. Thank you.

Ana Jimenez: Thank you very much Andrea for for giving me the floor and for the invitation to this important meeting and also to the previous speakers for all the wisdom and all the experiences they have shared so far. So from my side as you mentioned I’m going to share the importance that this issue has for Spain and some of the implications that we see it can have for some of the streams of where we are involved in. First of all for us evaluation is not like an add-on. It’s really the backbone for the successful implementation of Agenda 2030. It’s only by having evidence by having an evaluation of what’s working what is not working that we can really make progress. So we take this issue very seriously nationally and also in the context of the UN system. Here in the previous presentations, of course, we are very impressed by the work that the Synthesis Coalition is doing. We think it’s a very good living example of what we member states want to see coming out of the United Nations. In this context is the United Nations development system coming together with these 40-plus entities, working, producing this evidence that we need to make decisions. And we think that the example of this collaboration can also be an inspiration maybe for other parts of the UN system to come together in other processes and to work and produce very concrete results. We think that it’s a great opportunity, the Synthesis Coalition, to see what’s working, what is not working, and how to escalate what is working. Because at the end of the day, the achievement of the SDGs is such a colossal undertaking that we also need to think very big when we find that there’s evidence that works, how we can make it widely shared and how we can make scaling up for the whole of the world. Also another issue that is very important for us in the context of the Synthesis Coalition is the information that can be given to decision makers, and that’s something that other speakers have also shared. And for us, there is a very, very direct connection between this work and what we member states, what we decision makers have to do to make progress in the achievement of Agenda 2030. We think that the Synthesis Coalition is a great example about synergies within the UN system, and there’s much more potential to build on these synergies and to do much more. Another issue that we are particularly interested in, in the implementation of the SDGs is localization. Any other success of the 2030 Agenda is going to be a local success. We can think very big, very widely, very globally, but at the end of the day, it’s only when the SDGs start making a difference in people’s lives that things will change. And in this respect, Spain has been a champion of localization. We host the Secretariat of the Local 2030 Coalition in Spain, and this is an issue in which we are investing a great deal of both financial and political capital. So in this very positive context, we also think there is room for reflection and improvement. And one of these reflections actually touches upon your own office, your own mandate, and how the Synthesis Coalition and the system-wide evaluation office can work better together. Is it possible to find areas of complementarity, synergies, taking into account the different mandates and the different work, the different scope of work? We also think that the coalition, the Synthesis Coalition conclusions and recommendations can play a very important role for the executive boards of the agencies, funds, and programs. We want to find more connection between the work that is being done by the Synthesis Coalition and the discussions that we have as member states when we meet in the executive boards, and we make recommendations to the UN system. So there has to be a very fluid, fluid two-way conversation, so we make sure that your findings, your recommendations, then find the way through us in the recommendation that we make for the UN system. And we also think that this exercise can also elicit a lot of partnership and collaboration. operations, which maybe are not there yet, but can open up the road for that. So that would be sort of in a nutshell some of the issues that I would like to put for discussion. And I thank you again very much for the opportunity of taking part of the conversation.

Andrea Cook: Thank you, Ambassador Jiménez de La hoz, and for grounding your comments in the actual experience that we’ve been living the past two years within the coalition. It’s very helpful. I will now move on to our next speaker. We’re very honored to have Ambassador Martin Kimani join us as the Executive Director of NYU’s Center on International Cooperation and Kenya’s former permanent representative to the United Nations. Ambassador Kimani brings a wealth of experience in diplomacy and conflict resolution, and a passion for evidence. Ambassador Kimani, we look forward to hearing your insights on how international institutions and academia can better contribute to the topic for our discussions today. Over to you today, over to you.

Martin Kimani: Thank you very much, Andrea, and good afternoon. I don’t have much time, otherwise I’d give you lots of stories about how being in government means events move faster than your knowledge. And so you act before you think it all the way through. And you act usually on the basis of who you trust. And so the evidence to the people who are trusted is very important. At CRAC, we have the conviction that SDG 16 is going to be key to accelerating the fulfillment of the SDGs by 2030. And so we… do a lot of work to generate evidence on what works in SDG 16 and how can we get what works in the hands of coalitions of action that bring together officials, civil society, UN organizations and try and bring that evidence to the policy process. We do that through the building of an inequality solutions portal which is a live resource of about a hundred policies from 36 countries that cover issues from social protection to housing reform, just transitions, etc. We have a justice action coalition that we are a part of and are an important driver of which is a multi-stakeholder alliance of countries and organizations working to achieve measurable progress in justice outcomes. And just earlier today we were at the New York launch of the halving global violence task force report which brings, which analyzes a role of interpersonal violence, the impact of interpersonal violence and what evidence there is of how to cut it in half. And this is work that is being done by coalitions on the ground. We heard from the mayor of a Colombian city who had used evidence to reduce violence in the community to a 17-year low. We also work through a gender equality network for small arms control which works to reduce the impact of arms, small arms in engendered violence. The reason I bring these up other than to advertise our work is that the evidence is needed in such complex and varying ways. And so it’s very important for us to have the evidence produced by think tanks, produced by synthesis, produced by the different efforts that are going on within the world of technology, but align groups that are oriented towards action because ultimately the evidence must be brought to the ground. And so these coalitions generate trust, they generate solidarity, and they generate the momentum, the political and policy momentum. I’ll finish here with something that Bob and Anna here know, which is even before we get to the successful implementation of the SDGs by 2030, delegations here are drowning in paper and ability for experts to get synthesized evidence just from the vast trove of reports and resolutions and statements that are made here at the UN is critically important because only a few missions, actually no mission is not drowning in the process, but there’s so many missions that have very few experts, there are missions that have just less than five people working in them, and it’s going to be very crucial to bring the kind of, this coalition on evidence synthesis, I would highly recommend that you bring your attention to the United Nations. And by equalizing delegations here at the UN, they’ll be better able to engage in the debates on SDGs, and I think that will go some ways to supporting their governments. Congratulations to the launch of this exciting, exciting tool and thank you very much for inviting me to the meeting. Thank you.

Andrea Cook: Thank you, Martin. I’ll now move to the other member of our organizing team for this event, which is the International Network of Government Science Advice, and we’re now going to hear from Dr. Justine Germo-Unswunji. I hope I said that well. Justine is a plant biotechnologist and science policy expert, and she’s going to share INGSA’s perspective on strengthening the science policy interface. Over to you, Justine. Thank you.

Justine Germo Nzweundji: Thank you, Andrea. I’m very happy to be part of this important panel. I’m a member of the chairing committee of INGSA in Africa. INGSA is the International Network for Governmental Science Advice. It’s an organization gathering about 6,000 members around the world at the interface of science and policy. Those members are from about more than 100 countries. So INGSA works with individuals and organizations or institutions in terms of reinforce their capacity on science advice and also enhance evidence-informed policymaking. So my personal experience, I’ve been active through INGSA since the creation of the African chapter, and it has been a very exciting experience. On the other hand, also we have now artificial intelligence, which is the topic. INGSA community is also excited to use artificial intelligent tools in terms of gathering information, more information, wider information, timely information. And INGSA and partners are really looking forward to see how they can use artificial intelligence evidence synthesis tools in their work every day. I would just want to point out a few points. The first is the question framing, when we talk about science advice. We should be able to have input from different perspective. If not, we will be responding to the wrong question. So, this need then to be done in an inclusive way with a lot of collaboration. Another point that I want to point out is the evidence synthesis. Need to choose the right evidence. Inclusion and the diverse perspective also is important. But what I will mention here is we can take that vision in terms of field of research, in terms of language. Because some evidence can be available from one language and not for another languages, yes. In terms also of origin of evidence, where does it come from? Is it enough available, yeah. And the third point that I want to mention is the context of implementation. I heard during the presentation of the coalition the context of implementation. So, how will evidence will be carried out in a specific area? What was successful at the global level will it be implemented in another area? What training and resources needs to be part of the policy prescribing so that the global solution are relevant and also manageable in a local context under a specific condition. So, we talk about the culture, the linguistic, the economic, also the infrastructure. So, those three element, I think with the new coalition inside is ready to work closely to have better results in their work. And then specific because when we talk about science policy, When we talk about science advice or advocacy, there are two main elements which is really important. Those elements are evidence gathering, evidence synthesis. So with the tools that the coalition is presenting today, I think INSA is really ready to work together to have the better solution in their work. Thank you so much.

Andrea Cook: Thank you, Justine. And thanks for Ana, Martin, and Justine for really starting to ground this in the practical realities of what this needs to respond to. I’m now going to turn to Dr. Karla Soares-Weiser, the Editor-in-Chief of Cochrane, and Will Moy, the Chief Executive Officer of the Campbell Collaboration, who will give their perspectives from the producers of this work. Just please be mindful of time. We have four more speakers, including the two of you to go. So just keep it nice and short. Thank you. Over to you, Karla.

Karla Soares-Weiser: Thank you. Excellencies, distinguished guests, and colleagues. Today, I speak as part of a global effort to transform how we produce and use evidence. Campbell, Cochrane, and JBI, along with many others, are committed to make evidence centers more timely, relevant, and equitable. We fully support the principles of Show Me the Evidence, particularly the harmonizing global efforts to ensure equity and balance. As AI reshapes the landscape, we are excited to harness its potential while ensuring proper regulation and ethical use. One thing is clear. None of us can achieve this alone. Global challenges are complex, and if we are to contribute to the sustainable development goals, we must work together. Cochrane’s new scientific strategy focuses on key SDGs related to maternal, newborn, and child health, infectious disease, climate health, and multiple chronic conditions. We are committed to produce evidence in an inclusive way so that those most affected by health challenges can lead, contribute, and participate fully in decision making. Our goal is simple, to make evidence timely, relevant, and accessible to all. This shared commitment united us here today. And we are deeply grateful to the Malawian UK government, ESRC, welcome, the Global SDG Coalition, and a special thanks to John Laves from the Global Evidence Commission for bringing us at this moment. Thanks to your leadership, we now have a real opportunity to make a difference together. Thank you.

Andrea Cook: Will.

Will Moy: I, of course, agree with everything Carla says, and she speaks, I think, for the whole global evidence synthesis production community. Billions of people could be better off if we only used the evidence we already have and the research budgets we already have more effectively, and that’s what evidence synthesis should do. Everybody who makes decisions about the hardest problems in the world should have access to everything the world needs, knows, to solve those problems in one convenient place, whether they are sitting in a government building like this, or whether they are a teacher, a clinician, or a law enforcement officer, anywhere in the world. That’s the promise that has been made possible by these visionary investments today, and we are extremely grateful to the funders who have made those choices, and to everybody who has brought us to this stage. As somebody who only joined the Campbell Collaboration a year ago, I recognize that decades of work have gone into proving this possibility and bringing us to this point, and the years ahead are now very exciting and hard-earned by many people. I am just delighted to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with my colleagues at Cochrane, with JBI, and so many other people in the synthesis community to deliver this, and we recognize the moral responsibility on us all to make the transformative changes we can make. over the next few years thanks to this investment and the opportunity these two leading funders have created for other funders to step in and get extraordinary value for money and ultimately achieve comprehensive evidence synthesis across the entire set of the Sustainable Development Goals. Thank you all very much.

Andrea Cook: So thank you Will and Karla. We now have a slight change of tack because we’re now turning to the bridge between these seasoned experts, ministers, policy leaders and we’re going to turn now to hear from the generation that will inherit the world which the SDGs will deliver, hopefully a better and more equitable world. So we’re now going to turn to two youth reporters. Firstly Krishna Kishore Pandalaneni from India who is a Master of Public Administration at Columbia University and Reuben Pohl, a medical student at Oxford University and at Yale from Germany and we look forward to hearing their insights on leveraging evidence for effective decision-making and achievement SDGs and really bringing in their hopes as young people working at the beginning of their career to help drive forward a better future for us all. Krishna.

Krishna Kishore Pandalaneni: Thank you Andrea and it’s not easy to speak after these many distinguished speakers. From my childhood and from yours we have seen poverty, we have seen hunger and now we are speaking about climate change. All these challenges persist despite having countless well-crafted policies and significant efforts in drafting and implementing greater policies. This often leaves me wondering, what’s missing? The answer lies in evidence and access to the evidence. Without solid evidence, we can’t determine what works well, what doesn’t work, which policies truly create change and which doesn’t. Thanks to technological advancements, we now have access to vast amounts of data. Emerging technologies like AI are helping us in harnessing this data to generate evidence. If we use it effectively and responsibly, we can unlock untapped potential to drive better policies. As we celebrate the progress made in utilizing evidence and also the investment supporting this, we must keep in mind, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. To truly leave no one behind, we must ensure the power of evidence reaches all, regardless of its nation’s size, capacity or resources. It is often the most vulnerable populations, the youth and the small territories that face the most pressing challenges. Overlooking them puts the entire system at risk. Policy failures doesn’t have boundaries, as COVID has shown us. This calls for, and I reiterate what all the distinguished speakers have stressed, the need for international cooperation. And who is the most important in all of this? The youth. They are the immediate future, the ones most impacted by today’s policies. Even the Pact for Future calls for the increased investment in youth and their meaningful participation in the decision making. Thank you.

Reuben Pohl: Good afternoon, and thank you very much to the esteemed panel from whom we’ve heard today, and thank you to the organizers for bringing this incredible event together. When discussing the Pact of the Future, Antonio Guterres emphasized the need for youth to be involved in the decision making process. directly. To achieve this, we need to broaden the decision-making process to involve anyone affected regardless of age, background, or power within the existing systems. Throughout the talks today, we have heard about new initiatives to make evidence-based decision-making more accessible and inclusive, to rely more on evidence, and to get better at knowing which evidence is reliable, and finally, to harness AI responsibly to learn more from the data that we collect. Several developments have already contributed to advancing these goals and to make the local experience more familiar. Citizen science initiatives are forming bonds between communities and researchers. Community outreach and accountability programs ensure that the knowledge we develop serves those who are affected by it most. As we develop new tools and methodologies, it will be critical to share these broadly. On an international level, we need to ensure that everyone has access to our shared knowledge, but we also need to learn to listen more deeply. We need to make our knowledge base broader by diversifying who produces evidence, who shares evidence, and which systems we consider trustworthy. If we want our efforts to serve the whole world, then those efforts should originate from and be supported by the whole world. Fueled by advances in digital technologies, organizations represented here today have already made significant strides toward that direction. As we develop new technologies, we have ever more potential to break down the remaining barriers. With AI, this trend will become even more apparent, and it is on us to harness it responsibly and to create the future that we hope for. Thank you very much.

Andrea Cook: So thank you to Krishna and to Reuben. So now I’m very pleased to hand over to Kerry Albright, the Principal Advisor and Deputy Director at the UNICEF Evaluation Office and Co-Chair of the Global STG Synthesis Coalition, who will bring us to a close. Over to you, Kerry.

Kerry Albright: Thank you, Andrea. Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates, dear partners and audience members. My job today is relatively simple, I think. It’s just to give votes of thanks to everybody who was involved in organizing this event. So it’s my great pleasure to be able to draw the Summit of the Future Action Day side event to a conclusion today. I hope that when you leave today’s event, you’ll leave as I am doing, feeling really excited and stimulated about what you’ve heard. What you’ve heard in this room is both a collective commitment, but also a sense of responsibility to really do something radically different together, not in isolation, to accelerate delivery of the STGs, based both on insights from vastly underutilized sources of evidence, but also very practical actions and next steps. It’s time to capitalize upon that momentum and to really seize this unique moment, I think, for transformational change. Events like this don’t come together overnight. I’d like to acknowledge the hard work of senior officials and other colleagues from the organizing partners, including the Malawi mission to the UN, the UK mission to the UN, UK Research and Innovation, UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, the International Network for Government and Health Science Advice, the UN STG system-wide evaluation office, and the many, many UN agencies, member states, and civil society partners making up the Global STG Synthesis Coalition. On behalf of all of the organizing partners, I’d also like to thank all of our distinguished speakers for your time today. We’ve heard really groundbreaking and transformational announcements and statements of support from many people here, the governments of Canada, Malawi, United Kingdom, and Spain, as well as from the Wellcome Trust. We’ve heard from important civil society partners and leading thinkers in the evidence synthesis and science policy. So, thank you here to colleagues from the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges, New York University, Cochrane, Campbell Collaboration. Many thanks for your trust and for your collaborative mindsets and helping us really to think through how we shape a bigger, better, collective vision to accelerate use of evidence to drive forward delivery of the STGs. We’ve also heard from our two fantastic youth reporters, Krishna and Ruben. The Summit of the Future, as both of them said, really rightly places an emphasis on the voices and opinions of future leaders, and this will be at the heart of our conversations in coming days. The STGs lays out a blueprint for a better world for future generations, as Andrea said, and we all need to take that responsibility, nothing about us without us, listen to colleagues around the room, future generations very seriously. And finally, of course, I’d like to thank all of you. I mean, it’s such a packed room, far more than we’d anticipated here today, especially in the light of such a rich and stimulating program and choice of events. Please do join us, help us in delivering a more sustainable, equitable, and peaceful world that is transformed by multiple forms of evidence and multiple voices. Finally, practically, I’d like to invite those of you who pre-registered for the reception event at the UK Consulate to make your way over there now. Officials from the organizing team will be very happy to show you the way. For other attendees, thank you very much once again for your support, and I believe the closing ceremony, we’re not too far over, for the Summit of the Future Action Days is now taking place in the Yirkasak Council Chamber upstairs, should you like to attend. Thank you again, and the session is formally adjourned.

Agreement Points

Evidence synthesis is crucial for accelerating SDG progress

Speakers

Andrea Cook

Simplex Chitiola Banda

Bob Rae

Isabelle Mercier

John-Arne Røttingen

Arguments

Evidence synthesis is crucial for accelerating SDG progress

Evidence synthesis can help identify what works and what doesn’t

International collaboration is key for effective evidence synthesis

Evidence is often scattered and underutilized

Lack of access to evidence is holding back development

Summary

Multiple speakers emphasized the importance of evidence synthesis in driving progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by identifying effective interventions and policies.

Challenges in accessing and using evidence for policymaking

Speakers

John-Arne Røttingen

Martin Kimani

Justine Germo Nzweundji

Karla Soares-Weiser

Will Moy

Arguments

Lack of access to evidence is holding back development

Policymakers face time constraints in accessing evidence

Language and cultural barriers affect evidence accessibility

Evidence synthesis needs to be timely and relevant

Summary

Several speakers highlighted various challenges in accessing and using evidence for policymaking, including time constraints, language barriers, and the need for timely and relevant synthesis.

The role of technology and AI in enhancing evidence synthesis

Speakers

Lord Vallance

Bob Rae

John-Arne Røttingen

Arguments

AI and technology can enhance evidence synthesis capabilities

Inequalities exist in access to digital technologies and AI

Lack of access to evidence is holding back development

Summary

Speakers discussed the potential of AI and technology to improve evidence synthesis while also acknowledging the inequalities in access to these technologies.

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers emphasized the importance of involving youth in decision-making processes and ensuring that evidence serves those most affected by policies, particularly future generations.

Speakers

Krishna Kishore Pandalaneni

Reuben Pohl

Arguments

Youth should be involved in decision-making processes

Youth are the immediate future and most impacted by today’s policies

Evidence needs to serve those most affected by policies

Diversity in evidence production and sharing is crucial

Unexpected Consensus

Localization of SDGs and evidence use

Speakers

Ana Jiménez de la Hoz

Reuben Pohl

Arguments

Spain championing localization of SDGs and evidence use

Citizen science initiatives can bridge communities and researchers

Explanation

Despite representing different perspectives (government and youth), both speakers emphasized the importance of localizing SDG implementation and involving communities in the research and evidence-gathering process.

Overall Assessment

Summary

The main areas of agreement included the importance of evidence synthesis for SDG progress, challenges in accessing and using evidence for policymaking, the role of technology and AI in enhancing evidence synthesis, and the need for inclusive and diverse approaches to evidence production and use.

Consensus level

There was a high level of consensus among speakers on the importance of evidence synthesis and the need for improved access to evidence. This consensus suggests a strong foundation for collaborative efforts to enhance evidence-based policymaking for SDG achievement. However, there were also nuanced perspectives on implementation challenges and the role of different stakeholders, indicating the need for continued dialogue and diverse approaches to address these issues.

Overall Assessment

Summary

There were no significant disagreements among the speakers. The discussion was largely characterized by agreement on the importance of evidence synthesis, the need for international collaboration, and the potential of AI and technology in advancing SDG progress.

Disagreement level

The level of disagreement among the speakers was minimal. This high level of agreement implies a strong consensus on the importance of evidence-based decision-making and the need for improved access to synthesized evidence for achieving the SDGs. However, it also suggests that the discussion may have lacked diverse perspectives or critical challenges to the proposed approaches.

Partial Agreements

Both speakers agree on the importance of AI and technology in evidence synthesis, but Bob Rae emphasizes the existing inequalities in access to these technologies, while Lord Vallance focuses on their potential benefits without addressing the access issue.

Speakers

Bob Rae

Lord Vallance

Arguments

Inequalities exist in access to digital technologies and AI

AI and technology can enhance evidence synthesis capabilities

Similar Viewpoints

Both speakers emphasized the importance of involving youth in decision-making processes and ensuring that evidence serves those most affected by policies, particularly future generations.

Speakers

Krishna Kishore Pandalaneni

Reuben Pohl

Arguments

Youth should be involved in decision-making processes

Youth are the immediate future and most impacted by today’s policies

Evidence needs to serve those most affected by policies

Diversity in evidence production and sharing is crucial

Key Takeaways

Evidence synthesis is crucial for accelerating progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

There are significant challenges in accessing and using evidence for policymaking, including scattered information, time constraints, and inequalities in access to technology

Major initiatives and investments are being launched to improve evidence synthesis and use, including the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition and significant funding from the UK government and Wellcome Trust

Youth involvement and diverse perspectives are essential for effective evidence-based policymaking and SDG achievement

Resolutions and Action Items

UK government to invest £11.5 million in AI-driven evidence synthesis

Wellcome Trust to commit £45 million to living evidence synthesis over 5 years

Global SDG Synthesis Coalition to develop synthesis reports on various SDG topics, including peace and social protection

ECOSOC President to call special meetings on AI and evidence use for SDGs

Cochrane and Campbell Collaboration to support global evidence synthesis efforts

Unresolved Issues

How to ensure equitable access to AI and digital technologies across all countries

How to effectively integrate local context and knowledge into global evidence synthesis

How to balance the speed of AI-driven synthesis with the need for rigorous and ethical evidence production

How to sustainably fund and coordinate global evidence synthesis efforts beyond initial investments

Suggested Compromises

Balancing global evidence synthesis with localization of SDGs and evidence use

Combining AI-driven methods with human expertise and ethical considerations in evidence synthesis

Integrating multiple forms of evidence and voices, including youth perspectives, in policymaking processes

We are on the cusp of having every impact study in the world about education with all the data extracted, with all the risk of bias assessments done. And once that’s done, it can be served up in many different ways. It can be served up by best buys. It can be served up by broad approach like peer tutoring. It can be served up by branded programs. So if politicians are being lobbied, they can look to see what the evidence is.

Speaker

John Lavis

Reason

This comment provides a concrete vision for how synthesized evidence could be made accessible and actionable for decision-makers in unprecedented ways.

Impact

It shifted the conversation from abstract concepts to tangible possibilities, inspiring excitement about the potential real-world applications of the evidence synthesis work being discussed.

As AI reshapes the landscape, we are excited to harness its potential while ensuring proper regulation and ethical use. One thing is clear. None of us can achieve this alone. Global challenges are complex, and if we are to contribute to the sustainable development goals, we must work together.

Speaker

Karla Soares-Weiser

Reason

This comment thoughtfully addresses both the opportunities and challenges presented by AI in evidence synthesis, while emphasizing the need for collaboration.

Impact

It helped frame AI as a tool to be carefully leveraged rather than an automatic solution, and reinforced the importance of partnership across organizations and sectors.

We are at a real inflection point in the life of the world. We have a new technology that’s coming available. We have a challenge before us with respect to the sustainable development goals, which, as I call them, are really just the common sense of humankind. What do we need to be able to do in order to live decent lives? That’s what the sustainable development goals are, nothing more and nothing less. But if we do not marshal all these resources, we will be even worse off, frankly, than we are today in terms of the fundamental challenge, which is not that we don’t have prosperity among us. We do. Not that we don’t have exciting technological discussion going on. We all do. The problem is we don’t have available to everyone, and many people are being left badly behind.

Speaker

Bob Rae

Reason

This comment powerfully frames the SDGs as fundamental human needs and highlights the urgency of leveraging new technologies to address global inequalities.

Impact

It set a tone of moral imperative for the discussion, emphasizing that the work being discussed is not just about efficiency but about fundamental human wellbeing and equity.

Today I am announcing that Wellcome’s intention is to provide around 45 million pounds, around $60 million over the coming five years to boost what we can call living evidence synthesis.

Speaker

John-Arne Røttingen

Reason

This announcement of significant funding demonstrates concrete commitment to the ideas being discussed.

Impact

It shifted the conversation from theoretical possibilities to practical implementation, giving weight and momentum to the initiatives being proposed.

Overall Assessment

These key comments shaped the discussion by grounding abstract concepts in concrete possibilities, emphasizing the moral imperative of the work, highlighting the need for careful and collaborative approaches to new technologies, and demonstrating tangible commitment through funding announcements. They collectively moved the conversation from theoretical discussion to practical action, while maintaining a focus on the ultimate goal of improving human lives through better use of evidence in pursuit of the SDGs.

How can we ensure equitable access to AI and digital technologies across all countries, particularly in least developed countries?

Speaker

Bob Rae

Explanation

This is crucial to prevent widening inequality gaps as AI advances

How can we combat disinformation and misuse of social media that hinders progress on SDGs?

Speaker

Bob Rae

Explanation

Addressing this is essential for building public support for SDG efforts

How can the Synthesis Coalition and UN system-wide evaluation office work better together?

Speaker

Ana Jiménez de la Hoz

Explanation

Finding synergies between these efforts could improve overall effectiveness

How can the Synthesis Coalition’s work be better integrated into UN executive board discussions?

Speaker

Ana Jiménez de la Hoz

Explanation

This could help ensure findings inform UN system recommendations

How can evidence synthesis tools be applied to help UN delegations better process the large volume of reports and resolutions?

Speaker

Martin Kimani

Explanation

This could help smaller delegations engage more effectively in SDG debates

How can we ensure evidence synthesis includes diverse perspectives in terms of research fields, languages, and origins?

Speaker

Justine Germo Nzweundji

Explanation

This is important for creating truly comprehensive and inclusive evidence

How can we ensure global evidence and solutions are relevant and implementable in local contexts?

Speaker

Justine Germo Nzweundji

Explanation

This is crucial for effective implementation of SDG efforts globally