Ulrika Modéer, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Director of Bureau of External Relations & Advocacy was on a six-day mission to India from August 17- 22. She participated in the 4th G20 Digital Economy Working Group (DEWG) Meeting, which recently witnessed the landmark consensus on recognizing digital public infrastructure as an accelerator of the Sustainable Development Goals.
At the G20 Meeting in Bengaluru, she met India's Minister of Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, and reaffirmed UNDP's commitment to supporting India's digital transformation journey.
During her address, the ASG highlighted the importance of establishing an inclusive, open, fair, non-discriminatory, and secure digital public infrastructure.
The G20 India Presidency in partnership with UNDP launched two knowledge products on DPI to help countries advance their digital transformation journey, with speed, at scale, and inclusion. These were launched by Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. The DPI SDG Compendium presents a global snapshot of the potential and impact of DPI across all 17 SDGs, and the DPI Playbook provides practical resources on how countries can go about building their inclusive and rights-based DPI.
While in Bengaluru, Ms. Modéer met key officials from the state government, including Dr. Shalini Rajneesh, Additional Chief Secretary, Planning Dept, and Mr SR Umashankar, Additional Chief Secretary, Dept of Higher Education. She reaffirmed UNDP's support towards SDG localization, and empowering youth and women.
She also visited a health centre in Bengaluru to witness the Government of India's digital health infrastructure, which aims to effectively manage its immunization programme, and ensure equitable access to healthcare services at the last mile.
In Delhi, she met with key government officials, development partners, private sector partners, and members of the country's civil society, and engaged with the media.
"Great to meet #G20 Sherpa @amitabhk87and to congratulate him on India's leadership of @g20org which saw consensus on several key issues. I reaffirmed @UNDP's long-term commitment and discussed ideas for expanding our international collaboration for development," she said in a post.
She also witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region, Government of India and UNDP to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs in the north-east region.
The ASG also met UNDP's key development partners to discuss UNDP's support to India's G20 Presidency and thank them for their unwavering support to UNDP and deepening our collaboration in India and the world #PartnersAtCore.
The ASG also interacted with colleagues from UNDP and UNV, felicitated UNDP's gender champions, and shared her journey from a UNV to an ASG.