Crowd-Sourcing the SDGs, New Open-Source Digital Platform to Unlock Ideas

New York City, New York (USA) – October 14, 2019 (travelindex.com) – The World Economic Forum today announces the launch of UpLink, a new, open-source digital platform to foster mass participation from entrepreneurs, community groups and other interested parties or individuals to meet the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

UpLink is the product of a one-year collaboration between the Forum and launches partners Deloitte, Microsoft and Salesforce. It is being developed as a tool for crowd engagement, providing a means for entrepreneurs, experts, and other citizens – including Generation Z and Millennials – who might not typically have access to working closely with the World Economic Forum, to promote sustainable development.

As a realization of the proposals put forward by the High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation that was convened in 2018 by UN Secretary-General, UpLink’s open-source nature will publicly share insights from leaders of international organizations, governments, research institutions and other experts on the major challenges and roadblocks to implementing the SDGs.

In addition to providing a platform for crowd-sourcing ideas and innovations to advance the Goals, a fund is envisaged to finance the best ideas and innovations.

“By pairing the World Economic Forum’s unrivaled ability to convene leaders from across all stakeholder groups with UpLink’s potential for massive, open-source participation, we have created a unique formula for catalyzing the knowledge, ideas, and actions necessary to solve our world’s greatest development challenges,” said Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

“I have been incredibly inspired watching the next generation of leaders, entrepreneurs, and activists as they mobilize to save our planet,” said Marc Benioff, Chairman, and Co-CEO at Salesforce. “We’re proud to partner with the World Economic Forum to empower these leaders to drive us toward achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals”.

“As an organization deeply committed to making a positive impact in the world, Deloitte is delighted to play a lead role in helping bring the World Economic Forum’s vision for UpLink to life, as a first-of-its-kind platform to help accelerate action towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Deloitte will contribute its deep technology expertise and execution capabilities to developing a Salesforce solution for the platform that enables entrepreneurs, experts, mentors, and investors to connect and work together on our most significant global challenges,” said Punit Renjen, CEO of Deloitte Global.

“Microsoft’s partnership with the World Economic Forum on UpLink is a unique opportunity to unlock participation by entrepreneurs, experts and the world’s next generation of leaders to help promote and achieve the SDGs,” said Kate Behnken, Vice President and Head of Microsoft Philanthropies.

UpLink will launch formally at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting 2020 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 21-24 January. The first platform will focus on Sustainable Development Goal 14 related to life underwater. All 17 platforms are set to be launched by January 2021.

The Sustainable Development Impact Summit takes place on 23-24 September in New York. This year’s meeting convenes more than 1,000 regional and global leaders from government, business, civil society, and academia. The meeting will explore four themes: transforming markets, accelerating climate action, financing sustainable development and mobilizing action for inclusive societies.

The Co-Chairs of the Sustainable Development Impact Summit 2019 is Jesper Brodin, CEO and President, Ingka Group (IKEA Retail, Ingka Centres, Ingka Investments); Sebastián Piñera Echenique, President of Chile; Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands; and Melati Wijsen, Co-founder, Bye Bye Plastic Bags.