UN chief appoints panel on creating 'technology bank' for world’s poorest nations

The High-Level Panel – which is to advise on the organizational and operational aspects of the planned “Technology Bank and Science, Technology and Innovation Supporting Mechanism” – will be chaired by Rwanda’s Romain Murenzi, currently Executive Director of the World Academy of Sciences in Trieste, Italy, and includes five women and five men from LDCs and their development partners from the Global North and South.

Other panel members include, Mohamed Hassan of Sudan, Bruce Lehman of the United States, Tebello Nyokong of South Africa, Dorte Olesen of Denmark, Posh Raj Pandey of Nepal, Michèle Duvivier Pierre-Louis of Haiti, Firdausi Qadri of Bangladesh, Fang Xin of China, Hakan Karatas of Turkey, and the UN Under Secretary-General and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States, Gyan Chandra Acharya.

“The Secretary-General has asked the High-Level Panel to prepare practical recommendations on this important matter, which can provide a strong impetus to accelerating structural transformation and sustainable development of the LDCs,”  Ban’s spokesperson said in a note to correspondents.

Constituted in response to a request to the Secretary-General by the UN General Assembly, during its 68th session, the Panel was established “to examine the scope and functions of the proposed Technology Bank, its organizational aspects and its institutional linkages with the UN,” the spokesperson added.

The Panel will hold its first meeting in February 2015 and is expected to submit its report to the Secretary- General during the summer of next year.