Innovative Capacity Development Solutions to Promote Social Justice: Harnessing Emerging Technologies for Accelerated Social Development

Quantum technologies are reshaping global systems. Will your skills — and your institution — keep up?

Following the 2023 implementation assessment of the UN Sustainable Development Strategy Framework and the subsequent 2024 Pact for the Future, there is critical need for technological acceleration across development sectors. The UN Quintet of Change framework identifies five essential technical capabilities required system-wide: innovation architectures, advanced data systems, digital transformation methodologies, future foresight modeling, and applied behavioral science integration.

The ITCILO Innovation Sparks initiative creates a technical testbed for experimentation with emerging technologies that can scale social development outcomes. The Turin School of Development hosts this specialized webinar series examining the technical applications, integration challenges, and deployment strategies for cutting-edge technologies in capacity development contexts.

Each session features in-depth technical analysis of specific emerging technologies, focusing on:

• Technical capabilities and current research frontiers
• Integration methodologies with existing systems
• Implementation challenges and architectural considerations
• Regulatory and policy frameworks affecting deployment
• Ethical dimensions of technical implementation

17 December 2024

Our initial technical forum provided deep technical exploration of neurotechnology systems and their computational applications for learning environments. The multidisciplinary panel examined technical specifications of various neural interface technologies—including invasive and non-invasive BCI systems, neurostimulation protocols, neuromodulation frameworks, and neural prosthetic architectures. Discussion encompassed technical implementation challenges, data architecture considerations, security protocols, and emerging regulatory frameworks concerning neural data protection.

15 April 2025

This advanced technical session examined how quantum computing architectures are transforming learning and capacity development systems. The session featured technical perspectives from both quantum research and practical implementation domains. This  multi-disciplinary dialogue focused on  how quantum computing, quantum sensing and related innovations are reshaping educational practice, to raise awareness of the imminent shifts in capacity building methodologies, and to pinpoint both the opportunities for deploying quantum enabled tools in learning environments and the challenges they pose—particularly around data integrity, digital divides, and regulatory oversight.