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Policy research, advice and statistics

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SDGs

Solid, evidence-based analysis provides the foundation for sound industrial policy decisions and strategies. By implementing the right policies and interventions, a country can diversify its productive capacities and enhance the industrial sector’s contribution to the achievement of both local and global development goals.

UNIDO conducts applied research on themes related to its mandate of Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development (ISID) to foster accelerated industrial development and improved industrial competitiveness to reduce poverty and to contribute to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 9 “Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation”.

The wide range of industrial policy support and capacity development services UNIDO offers are grounded in empirical evidence and integrate solid research, policy analysis, and reliable and timely statistics. UNIDO’s policy advisory services build on UNIDO’s strategic approach to enhance countries’ technical, policy and normative knowledge base for ISID, strengthen their institutional capacities and advance multi-stakeholder partnerships and industrial cooperation.

Research and publications

  • From building back better to building forward: a collaborative approach to tackling industrial water pollution in the post-COVID era
    From building back better to building forward: a collaborative approach to tackling industrial water pollution in the post-COVID era

    In order to remain competitive and participate in global value chains, SMEs should seize opportunities to collaborate and adopt sustainable water management practices, which would otherwise be cost-prohibitive.

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  • Leveraging 4IR to “formalize” the informal economy - the COVID-19 imperative
    Leveraging 4IR to “formalize” the informal economy - the COVID-19 imperative

    COVID-19 has opened up new perspectives for leveraging 4IR, in particular linking the informal with the formal sector as well as last mile delivery.

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  • South Africa's capacity to deploy Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies post-COVID-19
    South Africa's capacity to deploy Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies post-COVID-19

    Despite South Africa’s declared interest in taking a lead role in the implementation of Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies on the continent, an analysis of the country’s innovation system and policies and its institutional capacities reveals that it cannot rely exclusively on its internal capabilities.

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  • Apprenticeship schemes to support post-COVID employment recovery in Africa’s manufacturing sector
    Apprenticeship schemes to support post-COVID employment recovery in Africa’s manufacturing sector

    COVID-induced income and job losses in Africa are high, especially in the manufacturing sector and among young people. Formal apprenticeship may represent a viable tool for post-COVID employment recovery in Africa’s manufacturing sector.

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  • The COVID-19 pandemic and the call for innovation policies in the health sector
    The COVID-19 pandemic and the call for innovation policies in the health sector

    The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the importance of well-defined, long-term industrial and STI policies aimed at mitigating the risks associated with innovative activities that target unmet public health needs. Brazil is a case in point.

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  • After COVID-19: “Net Zero” anxieties on Africa’s Copperbelt and Savannah
    After COVID-19: “Net Zero” anxieties on Africa’s Copperbelt and Savannah

    While African countries, among the lowest greenhouse gas emitters in the world, welcome the bold measures taken so far by the international community to assuage climate change, anxiety about the decarbonization agenda’s economic and political implications for their own people’s livelihoods is growing.

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  • The COVID-19 crisis and digital transformation: what impacts on gender equality?
    The COVID-19 crisis and digital transformation: what impacts on gender equality?

    The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated digital transformation, unearthing new challenges for the achievement of gender equality in labour markets.

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  • COVID-19: Long-term support for biotech yields vaccine promise in Cuba
    Why industrial development matters now more than ever before

    Manufacturing is the key to economic growth and underpins inclusive and sustainable development.

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  • COVID-19: Long-term support for biotech yields vaccine promise in Cuba
    COVID-19: A wake up call for research and industrial capacity-building

    The pandemic is a reminder that investments in scientific, technological and productive capacities are necessary to build resilience in crises.

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  • COVID-19: Long-term support for biotech yields vaccine promise in Cuba
    How industrial policy can mitigate the impact of the pandemic

    Policy actions and coordination will be crucial in mitigating the impacts of the global pandemic on industry.

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  • COVID-19: Long-term support for biotech yields vaccine promise in Cuba
    Aligning business and finance with sustainable development

    While public interventions are crucial, global transformation requires the deep engagement and alignment of the private sector.

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  • COVID-19: Long-term support for biotech yields vaccine promise in Cuba
    Foreign Investment: How to make it work for developing countries

    Policy reforms need to address low financial returns which hamper the contribution of FDI to sustainable development.

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  • COVID-19: Long-term support for biotech yields vaccine promise in Cuba
    Statistical indicators of inclusive and sustainable industrialization

    The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of timely, quality, open and disaggregated data and statistics, based on which effective and equitable measures and policies can be developed.

    Learn More

Related publication

  • Policy response to COVID-19 - Supporting African Industry through the pandemic [ 1.53 MB ]
    Download

Examples of activities

UNIDO provides a variety of upstream functions such as analytical, advisory, normative, convening and capacity building that aim at strengthening Member States’ policymaking efforts with regard to industrial development. Upon the request of the government of Cuba, UNIDO developed a project to boost industrial competitiveness of Cuba through design of an evidence-based industrial strategy and of the related implementation policy through (a) improving industrial statistics capacity for Cuba; (b) advising and training high-level government officials and working-level experts; and (c) advising and supervising the production of an industrialization strategy for Cuba.

Find out more on the OpenData platform.

Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) and industrial development are two powerful drivers of economic diversification and value addition, economic growth and sustainable development. It is against this backdrop that this project will assist UNIDO to more effectively participate in global debates and efforts to foster the contribution of STI and industrial development to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Agenda 2030. This project will support the creation of a policy and research and engagement programme at UNID on how to leverage STI for the achievement of ISID and the SDGs.

Find out more on the OpenData platform.

In line with its mandate to support Member States introducing circular economies practices into their economies and industrial value chains to help improve resource productivity and minimize waste, UNIDO, in partnership with the Italian academic institutions, has been tasked with organizing a training programme on circular economy. This programme aims at raising awareness of mid- to high-level policymakers from Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia on matters related to industrial policy and circular economy through a dedicated training course.

Find out more on the UNIDO Website and on the OpenData platform.

In the Arab and African regions, UNIDO, through the implementation of a capacity development programme for policymakers on environmentally sustainable industrial development, aims to develop the capacities of mid-level policymakers to better design and implement green industrial policies and circular economy by familiarizing them with a range of tools, best practices and instruments to tackle these challenges. This will in turn enable the policymakers to improve the environmental impact of their countries’ industrial sector in an effective and comprehensive way.

Find out more on the OpenData platform.

Events

  • 25 March 2022：Industrial policy and circular economy course for policymakers from Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia
  • 22 March 2022：Public-sector capacity building for Innovation and Industrializaion in Developing Countires
  • 3 December 2021: Understanding the interlinkages between accelerated climate change and the food-energy-water nexus

  • 1

    Trends in resource use and energy consumption indicate that current forms of production and consumption along product value chains are not sustainable in the long term. Therefore, Sustainable Development Goal 12 is to "ensure sustainable production and consumption patterns” and Sustainable Development Goal 9 includes a target to “upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes” by 2030. 

    The multidimensionality of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, covering economic, social and environmental targets, challenges policymakers to engineer innovative policy solutions to reconcile the objectives of industrialization with the transition to a circular economy, and triggers sustainable practices of resource management and consumer habits. All this calls for new approaches towards inclusive and sustainable industrial development. Industrial policies, among other national policies, are critically important in promoting a just transition towards a circular economy.

    In this context, UNIDO conducted a four-day online course on “Industrial policies for a circular economy”, generously supported by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation. The course hosted policymakers from the ministries of industry, economy, or similar from Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia.

    Find out more information here. 

  • 2

    UNIDO, in collaboration with the Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI) and the Government of the Republic of Korea, organized an online event on the contribution of science, technology, and innovation (STI) for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), with emphasis on SDG9. The rational for the event is the recognition of STI and industrial development as two powerful drivers of economic diversification and value addition, economic growth and sustainable development. 

    The online event presented recent experiences of a selected number of East Asian countries to illustrate strategies to address gaps in technological capability accumulation and strengthen policy capacities for innovation and industrialization. Leveraging on concrete experiences is intended to foster policy learning and enhance government capacities to design and implement appropriate STI and industrial policies. 

    The online event comprised two parts. First, the launch of the report titled “The Role of science, technology, and innovation policies in the industrialization of developing countries: Lessons from East Asian Countries”, which includes case studies of East Asian countries that have leveraged on STI and industrial policies to achieve rapid industrialization. Building on this discussion, the second part of the event served to discuss what kind of policy capacities are required to implement STI and industrial policies in a post-pandemic world. 

    Find out more information here. 

  • 1The difficulties in reaching a firm agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and facilitate the transition towards a decarbonized renewable energy mix were visible during the recent COP26 negotiations. Countries are still reluctant to decisively embrace renewable energy or energy efficiency because of the technical feasibility obstacles related to their diffusion and the necessary huge investments and high production costs.

    An understanding of the barriers to the diffusion of renewable energy and energy-efficiency technologies is hampered by the complexity of the interlinkages among different environmental variables, well represented by the food, energy and water nexus, and among the different Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) objectives encompassing economic, social and environmental dimensions. 

    Within the context of ICAE (International Conference of Applied Energy), Forschungszentrum Jülich, UNIDO and the prestigious international scientific journals, Applied Energy and Advances in Applied Energy, joined hands to discuss the issue at a special session: “Accelerated climate change and the Food- Energy-Water Nexus”. The underlying idea of the session was to understand these complex interlinkages and to create a bridge between science and sound policy.

    Find out more information here. 

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