Disaster relief information and communication technologies can enable SDGs

Participants of an expert panel representing governments, private sector and NGOs at the ITU World Telecom 2016 event here argued that ‘disaster relief’ ICTs could be a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) enabler.

Disasters (earthquakes, floods, cyclones, hurricanes, epidemics etc.) continue to undermine economic development, social development, and environmental protection. Thus existing and emerging ICTs can mitigate the impact of these disasters increasing the chance for countries to attain the SDGs by 2030.

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During the opening up of the discussion, the panel, prompted by a question from the audience, discussed whether governments should look towards prioritizing satellite, despite cost concerns, so that a population can get more familiar with using it and thus use it more naturally in a disaster scenario.