Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies

The Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies (ODET) of the United Nations was officially established on January 1, 2025, as the result of a process initiated in 2019 to strengthen global digital cooperation and the governance of emerging technologies within the UN system.

History

The origins of ODET trace back to the report published in June 2019 by the United Nations Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Digital Cooperation, titled The Age of Digital Interdependence. The report recommended the creation of a Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology, tasked with identifying emerging technological challenges, promoting multi-stakeholder coordination, and advising UN leadership on key technology trends.

In response to the panel’s recommendations, the UN Secretary-General launched the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation in 2020, which formalized the establishment of the Technology Envoy position and emphasized the United Nations’ role as a platform for multi-stakeholder dialogue on digital and emerging technologies.

The importance of technology as a global issue was further reaffirmed in the United Nations General Assembly Declaration on the Commemoration of the 75th Anniversary of the UN (resolution 75/1, adopted in September 2020), in which Member States committed to enhancing digital cooperation.

In 2021, the Secretary-General’s initiative Our Common Agenda placed further emphasis on the digital space and proposed the development of a Global Digital Compact, aimed at establishing shared principles for an open, secure, and inclusive digital future for all.

During this period, the Office of the Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology played a key role in coordinating the UN’s digital efforts, fostering partnerships, and supporting the implementation of the Roadmap for Digital Cooperation in close collaboration with UN entities, civil society, the private sector, and multilateral forums such as the Internet Governance Forum.

The formal establishment of ODET was catalyzed by the adoption of the Pact for the Future and its annex, the Global Digital Compact, during the Summit of the Future in September 2024. Subsequently, on December 24, 2024, the UN General Assembly approved the transition from the Office of the Technology Envoy to the new Office for Digital and Emerging Technologies, with an expanded mandate to address emerging technology challenges and advance global digital cooperation.