Session Report

The 2023 spring session of the Digital & Technology Network (DTN) was kindly hosted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at their headquarters in Washington D.C., between 1 and 3 May. The meeting convened 66 participants from 48 entities, including Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Digital Officers (CDOs). The agenda included 26 presentations covering 32 items, updates from 6 DTN working groups and concluded with breakout sessions exploring future courses of action. New members were welcomed from ICAO & UNAIDS. The meeting was chaired by Bernardo Mariano Junior (CITO, UN) and Shirin Hamid (CIO, IMF). The agenda was adopted without changes.

Topics discussed included cybersecurity and Zero Trust, generative AI, open source, data strategy, digital accessibility, CRM & ERP, emerging solutions in many of these domains and how to effectively facilitate the sharing knowledge within a growing community. Cybersecurity discussions focused on adopting an incremental approach and implementing Zero Trust principles for enhanced security. The role of generative AI in shaping society and work was discussed at length and alignment with the common good was highlighted as an underlying objective. The value of open source in promoting contributions and scalable architectures was recognized and advanced by the introduction of a dedicated community of practice. Updates on the UN data strategy and data analytics developments benefited from recent improvements in data collection and sharing platforms, providing for advanced insights. The importance of sharing scalable solutions and fostering collaboration for mutual benefit was also emphasized, reflecting the meeting's focus on progress and advancement within UN.