Frontier Challenges: Emerging Tech: National Dialoges

Innovation methods

Data sources

SDG(s)

Sustainable Development Goal(s)

8Decent work and economic growth

9Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Disclaimer:

Please be aware that the content herein has not been peer reviewed. It consists of personal reflections, insights, and learnings of the contributor(s). It may not be exhaustive, nor does it aim to be authoritative knowledge.

Title

Please provide a name for your action learning plan.

Frontier Challenges: Emerging Tech: National Dialogues

Challenge statement

Challenge type: If you are working on multiple challenges, please indicate if this is your "big bet" or "exploratory" challenge. Please note: we ask you to only submit a maximum of 3 challenges - 1x Big Bet, 2x Exploratory. Each challenge must be submitted individually.

BIG BET

Challenge statement: What is your challenge? (Please answer in specific terms: "Our challenge is that...”.)

Challenge statement: Our challenge is that “voices” of people, experts, and decision-makers—on emerging frontier technologies such as AI are often overlooked in development and policymaking. With this intervention and thoroughly developed methodologies we want to create 4 dialogues where these voices can surface on the perceived benefits and risks related to the development and deployment of these technologies. This builds on AccLabs understanding that there is an untapped wealth of relevant knowledge and perspectives in collective intelligence that should be considered in the development and regulation of frontier technologies at the global level. The challenge statements on the 4 dialogues are not set in stone but some early drafts are on the following topics: 1. GenAI in education in N. Macedonia / Leveraging leverage AI for innovation in education while maintaining ethical safeguards. 2. AI Developments - Governance and Tech 3. How technology affects information integrity in North Macedonia? 4. TBD

Background: What is the history of your challenge? What is causing or driving it? Who is involved? How does the current situation look like? What undesired effects does it produce?

As emerging technologies rapidly evolve—ranging from artificial intelligence and blockchain to digital platforms and automation—governments worldwide, including North Macedonia, face significant challenges in keeping pace. The rapid diffusion of these innovations often outstrips the ability of policymakers to regulate effectively, integrate them into governance structures, and anticipate their societal impact. This challenge is driven by a combination of factors, including limited institutional capacity, fragmented policy frameworks, and a lack of structured cross-sector dialogue between government, private sector innovators, academia, and civil society. In North Macedonia, as in many other countries, regulatory frameworks remain reactive rather than anticipatory, creating governance gaps that hinder both responsible innovation and equitable access to emerging technologies. In addition, there are specific EU accession related transpositions of EU laws/ or approximations needed. Key challenges include a slow adaptation of legal and ethical standards, insufficient digital skills among policymakers, and underdeveloped mechanisms for citizen engagement in tech governance. As a result, technological advancements often lead to regulatory blind spots, ethical dilemmas, and unequal distribution of benefits, exacerbating digital divides and limiting the potential of emerging technologies to drive inclusive development. Addressing these issues requires forward-looking strategies, multi-stakeholder engagement, and adaptive governance models that enable policymakers to respond proactively to technological change.

Quantitative evidence: What (official) data sources do you have on this challenge that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge? You can add text, a link, or a picture.

Unlike previous technological and industrial revolutions where high-income countries had a significant head start, with emerging technologies of the 21st century the playing field is more leveled at least in terms of access. However, differences in infrastructure, digital literacy, data ecosystems, and regulatory environments still create disparities in how effectively countries can harness its potential. The AccLab team spearheaded the process of preparation of the Digital Readiness Assessment DRA for North Macedonia in 2023. Post DRA, the team organized two discussions with larger group of stakeholders where two key findings were elaborated. One digital literacy and two digital transformations in business, particularly for MSME. Both of these discussions and the DRA highlighted that digital transformation is lacking behind in a couple of areas such as skills, both in general and public, and administration. There are specialized talent in the country in specific emerging tech fields such as AI, gaming, blockchain where our hypothesis is that these people can be the enablers for smoother digital transformation using Gen AI. Gen AI is expected to influence the talent, products, services etc.

n/a

Qualitative evidence: What weak signals have you recently spotted that characterizes its urgency? Please provide qualitative information that better exemplifies the importance and urgency of this frontier challenge. You can add text, a link, or a picture.

McKinsey Gen AI adoption spikes and starts to generate value in the previous years. As McKinsey 72% of organizations worldwide have adopted AI, marking a significant increase from previous years. The International Monetary Fund's AI Preparedness Index reveals stark contrasts between advanced economies, where the average index is 0.68 to Emerging market economies with 0.46 and low- income countries with Low-income countries: 0.32

n/a

Value proposition: What added value or unique value proposition is your Accelerator Lab bringing to solving this challenge? Why is it your Lab that needs to work on this challenge and not other actors within UNDP, other stakeholders in the country respectively? Why is it worth investing resources to this challenge?

Unlike the other units in our CO who are more focused on implementation of digitalization we are more focused on sensemaking on the emerging technologies and what they will mean to both development work and the future of our society . With this dialogues we will be working for the first time with some stakeholders and that is why we are branding this as a big bet.

Short “tweet” summary: We would like to tweet what you are working on, can you summarize your challenge in a maximum of 280 characters?

With Emerging technologies all countries start at the same line—but who wins the race depends on governance, digital readiness, and inclusivity. How can we ensure no one is left behind? #ET4Development #FrontierTech

Challenge classification

Partners

Who are your top 5 partners for this challenge? Please submit from MOST to LEAST important and state Name, Sector and a brief description of the (intended) collaboration.

Please state the name of the partner:

Universities in the country

What sector does our partner belong to?

Academia

Please provide a brief description of the collaboration.

We are planning to invite relevant University professors working on the topics of discussion

Is this a new and unusual partner for UNDP?

Learning questions

Learning question: What is your learning question for this challenge? What do you need to know or understand to work on your challenge statement?

What do people in our country know about emerging technologies

To what stage(s) in the learning cycle does your learning question relate?

Sense, Explore

Usage of methods: Relating to your choice above, how will you use your methods & tools for this learning question? What value do these add in answering your learning question?

We want to create open space where experts on different topics can collaborate in an open manner.

Existing data gaps: Relating to your choice above, what existing gaps in data or information do these new sources of data addressing? What value do these add in answering your learning question?

They will help us formulate the hypothesis for the dialogues

Closing

Early leads to grow: Think about the possible grow phase for this challenge - who might benefit from your work on this challenge or who might be the champions in your country that you should inform or collaborate with early on to help you grow this challenge?

One of the early leads in this challenge is the CO colleagues and SM who on multiple occasions are approached by the government to work on some of the aspects that we will be discussing on the

END OF ACTION LEARNING PLAN: Thank you! The form saves automatically and your submission has been recorded. You may now exit this window.

n/a