UN OICT

09/18/2026

10K and counting.

Since launching in March 2025, over 10,000 unique users have visited the United Nations AI Enablement Portal, making it a central destination for training, guidance and approved use cases.

As global conversations on AI continue around , OICT is helping turn responsible AI principles into practice inside the UN.

09/17/2026

As world leaders gather for , digital transformation is part of the bigger picture.

From digital public services to data, connectivity and , technology can help governments and communities accelerate progress towards the .

A more sustainable and more inclusive future for all is on the hori...

09/14/2026

What role can universities play in turning open source innovation into lasting global impact?

At hashtag 2026, CURIOSS, a Community for University and Research Institution OSPOs, brought this question to the United Nations during its session, “Building Open Source Capacity at Scale: University OSPOs as Engines for SDG Impact,” as part of hashtag Day.

The session brought together university Open Source Program Offices, researchers, the United Nations and members of the wider open source community to examine how academic institutions can build open source capacity while helping advance the hashtag .

And there are already examples of this work in action.

Through the hashtag initiative, university OSPOs are connecting students with real-world challenges. At Carnegie Mellon University Africa, students developed open source tools designed to connect rural farmers in Rwanda with markets. At University of California, Santa Cruz, students have worked with California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) to develop AI-enabled tools supporting wildfire detection and response.

Dr. Jennifer Schopf of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin highlighted another model: giving researchers around the world access to high-performance computing infrastructure through programmes such as Advanced Computing for Social Good.

Zach Chandler of Open Source at Stanford highlighted how universities can help promising research projects become sustainable open source ecosystems. Using the Natural Capital Alliance’s InVEST toolset, he noted the importance of building contributor communities, modular infrastructure and long-term support needed for open technology to grow and be reused.

During an interactive workshop, participants identified several priorities for increasing the impact of academic OSPOs: expanding open source literacy beyond computer science; maintaining and securing projects after their original creators move on; sharing training and resources across institutions to reduce duplication; and strengthening collaboration among universities, governments, industry, foundations and communities.

Participants also explored how academic OSPOs can help turn student and research projects into lasting public goods, while giving the next generation practical experience contributing to open technologies that address real needs. The conversation reflected that scaling open source means investing in the people, communities and institutions that can sustain it.

Universities have an important role to play: helping ideas move from research and experimentation toward open solutions that can be maintained and scaled for the global common good!

09/10/2026

With underway, United Nations is tackling the world’s most complex challenges. Making sense of data is increasingly part of that work.

? Open to all United Nations personnel, UNITE Academy is a series of training sessions on data and analytics offered by OICT, aiming to enhance data literacy and increasing awareness of data and analytics within the Organization.

Learn more at: https://youtu.be/_0vcs_RpFpI?si=72mTDNNdoVr6fXHj

09/08/2026

And we’re live! opens today.

For UN OICT Broadcast and Conference Support Section (BCSS), that means some of the busiest weeks of the year are officially underway.

From the General Assembly Hall to media zones, meeting rooms and studios across UN Headquarters, BCSS teams will be working behind-the-scenes to keep cameras rolling, microphones live, conference systems running and people connected.

As one of our technicians puts it: “We are the eyes and the ears of the UN.”

There’s a lot ahead. BCSS is ready.

What does it take to enable officials from across the globe to convene, speak and understand each other at the United Nations while also broadcasting proceedings to the wider world? Go behind the scenes with the UN's 'eyes and ears' as Misra Iltus explains how her team makes it possible for particip...

09/08/2026

Exciting update from :

Unveiled at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Suno Sutra, co-developed by Bhashini and Current AI, is an open-source, multilingual, handheld AI reference design. https://www.currentai.org/prototype

Kalpa Impact orchestrated and supported the collaboration of BHASHINI - (Digital India BHASHINI Division) and CurrentAI to build this prototype open-source hardware and software community for multilingual, offline AI. Together, Bhashini brings India’s language technology infrastructure, with capabilities across 22+ Indian languages, Current AI, an international non-profit collective for public-good AI, brings expertise in open-source, human-centric technologies and open hardware, and Kalpa Impact helps shape the direction, establish protocols, design principles and provide the implementation expertise needed to build around India’s realities.

Suno Sutra is the starting point.

The was designed to put the reference design in the hands of builders, with social impact at its core — asking participants to develop public-interest applications and rethink the hardware itself to make it smaller, more power-efficient and rugged for localised deployment.

The response has already begun to show the breadth of the community:

📩 135 applications from researchers, students, startups and academia across 10+ states
🔍 35 teams taken through technical assessment
🔧 18 teams selected for hardware build-out
🌱 Applications ranging from offline crop diagnosis and livestock health to language preservation and accessible document reading

With open hardware and software, the ambition is to enable future hardware, localised applications and new pathways for social impact, shaped by a growing community of builders.

Stay tuned for more updates!

09/03/2026

Achieving means building digital infrastructure that is resilient, inclusive and accessible to all and ensuring innovation reaches the communities that stand to benefit from it most.

Investing in advanced technologies and closing the remaining gaps in mobile broadband access will be critical to ensuring no one is left behind.

Learn more about the progress, challenges and actions needed to achieve : https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/infrastructure-industrialization/

09/02/2026

This week’s spotlight is close to home.

Meet Carlota Martin Polo, Communications and Outreach Intern at UN OICT, helping bring stories of technology, AI and innovation across the UN to a wider audience through the campaign.
https://unite.un.org/en/WomenInTech-UN/carlota-martin-polo

08/31/2026

What happens after UN Open Source Week?

Kicking off a series here over the coming months, we’re revisiting moments from hashtag 2026 and following up on what's happened since.

First up, an exciting development from Japan!

During OSPOs for Good Day, our “Country Spotlight: Lessons from Open Source Implementation in Japan” brought together an impressive group from government, industry and academia to discuss Japan’s evolving approach to open source and the role OSPOs could play in building a stronger open source ecosystem: Masayuki Yamada (Digital Agency, Government of Japan), Ken Chibana (Tokyo Metropolitan Government), Masato Endo (Toyota Motor Corporation), Masayuki Kuwata (Sony), Yuichi Kusakabe (Honda), Hiroyuki Ishii (Panasonic/ Linux Foundation Japan) and Shoji Kajita (Nagoya University / Kyoto University / Apereo Foundation).

Together, they laid out what Yamada-san called the “Japan Model” of open source collaboration.

The line that stuck with us: when Masayuki Yamada described Japan's "virtual OSPO" — no formal office, no charter, yet the functions were already at work. "Function precedes form," he said, "and the institutional shape catches up" (https://lnkd.in/eda_vXqS).

And last month, an exciting development took shape. Japan's Cabinet approved its new Priority Policy Program for Realizing a Digital Society — and for the first time, a Cabinet decision commits the Government of Japan to establishing a formal OSPO at the Digital Agency. https://lnkd.in/epqnwFmU

We talk a lot about open source as a foundation for digital sovereignty and technological resilience. But turning those ambitions into practice requires institutions, skills and sustained engagement with open source communities. OSPOs can be an important part of that infrastructure.

It’s great to see the conversation moving forward so quickly. We’re excited to see where Japan’s open source efforts go from here and look forward to following what comes next from hashtag !

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08/20/2026

What happens when better data meets action?

For Saeeda Faisal, Provincial Communications & MIS Project Assistant at UN-HABITAT, technology means turning information into smarter decisions, stronger programmes and real impact.

Learn more at: https://unite.un.org/en/WomenInTech-UN/saeeda-faisal