Global Solutions Summit 2018
From the Lab to the Last Mile:
Technology Deployment Business Models for the SDGs​


June 4, 2018
United Nations Headquarters
New York City

---

The Global Solutions Summit (GSS) will convene at the United Nations in New York City on June 4, 2018.  It will precede and complement the Third Annual UN STI Forum supported by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, and the UN Commission on Science and Technology for Development which will convene at the UN on June 5-6, 2018.  The theme of this year’s Summit is “From Lab to the Last Mile: Technology Deployment Business Models for the SDGs.” ​Registration is free and open to all interested participants.

Registration Information

​GSS 2018 is based on the premise that scientific research to find new or improved development solutions is a first small step in the very long journey from the lab to the last mile.  The remaining steps entail the less-glamorous and more mundane issues of scaling up the deployment of these solutions so that they reach tens, if not hundreds of millions of people in developing countries. GSS 2018, therefore, will focus on the organizational, entrepreneurial, financial, sociological and managerial dimensions of scaling technology deployment. It will showcase specific business models and financial mechanisms that NGOs, social enterprises, foundations and others are using to successfully deploy proven, cost-effective development solutions at scale.  Speakers will be thoughtful doers -- i.e., women and men who are actively working in the field to overcome these deployment challenges – who will explain what they have done, how they did it, what went right and what went wrong, where gaps or broken circuits exist in the deployment ecosystem, and what needs to be done to create a more effective and efficient ecosystem that can support the deployment of these innovations on the scale required to achieve the SDGs by 2030.  Continue Reading.