Committee on Innovation, Competitiveness and Public-Private Partnership, Team of Specialists on Innovation and Competitiveness Policies (CICPPP)

The CICPPP reconvened at the UNOG this week to revisit international and regional innovation, with a particular focus on sustainable technology invention and deployment. Initially, the conference debated emerging global CO2 emissions data and its implications for climate change. In addressing climate change holistically, its broader knock-on effects on a variety of industries was presented. The agriculture, water, energy, transport health and urban development sectors were concentrated on. Only the transport sector noted potential benefits if artic ice recession reduced shipping costs through the region. The conference moved to debate efficacious and cost-effective policy adaptation tools currently being utilized in various states. These tools include improving pricing signals, reforming experimental and standardization regulations, restructuring financing tools, introducing novel global insurance schemes, galvanizing R&D through incentivization and avoiding duplicating policy reform.

The afternoon session demonstrated a shift in focus towards how to track and evaluate innovation progress in nations and across sectors. One suggestion emphasised the value of regional rather than global innovation indices. Importantly, global rating measure can dilute local innovation successes. Regional index schemes would increase regional policy index dialogue, helping policy makers uncover dimensions previously overlooked by an insular approach to policy reform. Comparing innovation inputs to outputs can offer insight into national innovation effectiveness. Creating reliable metrics in this domain would help uncover what underpins an integrated national policy framework that effectively unites a melange of innovation-policy tools.

Finally, many states and bodies, namely Tajikistan, Ukraine, Sweden and Shiffer Institute of Advanced Studies shed light on the difficulties many actors face in sizing representative innovation metrics and that such innovation indices can potentially distort real economic output perspectives. CICPPP aims to deploy a pilot program in Georgia to assess the value of innovation indicators. Specifically, increased transparency and cross-border dialogue regarding innovation strategy would increase the value of relative quantitative and qualitative analyses.

Date and Time: Saturday, 3 November 2018

Location: Salle XI, Palais des Nations, Geneva

Speakers: Ms. Sedef Yavuz Noyan (Chairman, CICPPP), Mr. Rafis Abazov (Vice Chairperson), Mr. Nikita Ponomarenko (Vice Chairperson), Jakob Fexer (Project Manager of the SEE Competitiveness Outlook, OECD South East Europe Division)

Countries represented: Georgia, Armenia, United Kingdom, Tajikistan, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Sweden, Poland

Bodies represented: UNIDO, UNCTAD, WIPO, Shiffers Institute of Advanced Studies

Author: WIT Representative, Farri Gaba