The Regional Innovation Forum for Europe, organized within the framework of the 2021 ITU Global Innovation Forum, took place virtually from 22 to 23 September 2021. It was organized with the support of the Ministry of Information Society and Administration of the Republic of North Macedonia.
The global COVID-19 pandemic has created an opportunity to reflect and reimagine digital ecosystems that accelerate sustainable digital transformation in the Europe region. Most stakeholders are facing the same struggle: to manage and recover from the consequences of the pandemic. The Europe region felt the impact differently based on the readiness of the digital ecosystems to tackle the issues raised by the pandemic. The ITU Europe office latest report, “Regional good practices: Accelerating innovation, entrepreneurship and digital transformation in Europe", highlights the performance these ecosystems with general indicators on innovation, ICT infrastructure, and entrepreneurship.
This edition of the ITU Regional Innovation Forum for Europe 2021 brought together regional stakeholders to share insights and offer much-needed opportunities for leaders and innovators across sectors to pioneer new approaches, share best practices and adopt new solutions across industries and markets. The forum covered three main areas: the general digital innovation ecosystem, the agricultural digital ecosystem and the ICT accessibility ecosystem.
The ITU Regional Innovation Forum for Europe fostered inclusive, constructive and practical dialogue between key stakeholders of the regional ecosystems, provided an opportunity to connect communities across the region to take bold action and create a resilient and innovative ICT centric ecosystem. This forum targetted all stakeholders involved in nurturing digital innovation, with a particular emphasis on the stakeholders in the sectors facing the biggest opportunities and challenges in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as tourism, commerce, digital inclusion, digital health, online learning, public services and digital agriculture.
New thinking - a whole-of-ecosystem approach - is needed to accelerate digital transformation across key sectors. Thus, this forum agenda has been customized for the needs of ICT policy makers, regulators, tech incubators, national innovation agencies, development agencies, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial support organizations, academia as well as institutions willing to undertake national reviews on the ICT-centric innovation ecosystems. This forum nurtured cross-community engagement with ideas and actions that will shape the future of digital transformation in the region. Furthermore, the sessions were designed to foster interaction, facilitate practice sharing, and discover innovative solutions and approaches that can equip stakeholders with knowledge and tools to navigate digital transformation in the age of pandemic. This forum seeked to promote the “One United Nations" collaboration at the regional level.
