Expert Meeting on Transformative Innovation for Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction Held with CSIS

JICA Research Institute (JICA-RI) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) launched a two-year joint research project on “Transformative Innovation for Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction” in 2015. Entering into the second year of the project, JICA-RI gathered a working group at the JICA Ichigaya Building in Tokyo on November 8 and 9, 2016, to discuss the data revolution and its challenges.

The successful outcomes of the first year were presented in a report entitled, "Transformative Innovation for International Development: Operationalizing Innovation Ecosystems and Smart Cities for Sustainable Development and Poverty Reduction” in May 2016.

The year-two project aims to reveal how the data revolution can contribute to sustainable development and achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. The event in Tokyo concentrated on framing issues of how international development actors are responding to the call for the revolution in sustainable development data. At this event, prominent experts from government agencies, academia and the private sector were invited. Day One of the event highlighted satellite data issues and Day Two focused on promoting the use of technologies for data collection through personal-level devices in the data revolution. Naohiro Kitano, director of JICA-RI and Daniel F. Runde, director of the Project on Prosperity and Development at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, gave the opening remarks.

The second-year research outcomes will be delivered in a final report to be published in 2017.