Science Diplomacy to Provide Platforms for Sustainable Development

In the inaugural issue of Science Diplomacy Perspectives, produced by Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Career Diplomat Muhammad Adeel wrote about science diplomacy and how it provides socio-technical platforms that can potentially deliver technology-enabled sustainable development.

The United Nations has organized a Food Systems Summit on September 23-24, 2022 to discuss the future of global food systems, especially on attaining zero-hunger. The Summit is the latest effort to provide a science-policy-society interface to actualize innovative solutions for delivering progress across all UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Through a food systems approach, the Summit tried to address the entire supply chain. Science diplomacy offers platforms to deliver sustainable development.

Adeel's paper details the role of science diplomacy and proposes a three-tier approach to improve regulatory outcomes related to agri-biotechnology at the level of process, products, and education.

• Process: Science diplomacy to enable new technologies through cross-sectoral treaty dialogues and optimal use of available science advice, increasing national capacities in devising regulatory guidelines on agri-biotechnology. 
• Product: Science diplomacy can help provide a science- and society-centered discussion platform for biotech products.
• Education: Science diplomacy trainings bring together diverse stakeholders, facilitate engagement, and enable science communication of new and emerging technologies.

To read Adeel's paper and the inaugural issue, download Science Diplomacy Perspectives.