Data, Digital Innovation and the Sustainable Development Goals in Smart Communities, with Calum Handforth

The Smart Community Podcast

Hi #SmartCommunity friends! Welcome back to the Smart Community Podcast. In this episode I have a fantastic conversation with Calum Handforth. Calum works for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and has led innovation and digitalisation efforts globally, as well as advised governments around the world. He was also Co-Chair of the Digital Infrastructure Taskforce, part of the World Economic Forum’s G20 Working Group on Smart Cities.

In this episode, Calum and I discuss the types of things he works on at the UNDP, and the progress made on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals since they were introduced in 2015. We talk about using data and storytelling to drive progress and innovation, including Calum’s BLT acronym when thinking about data, and the potential of open source digital solutions to improve city infrastructure and services. Calum tells us about his favourite project he’s worked on at the UNDP, that incorporated a human-centred design approach to improve a market in Gambia, and the emerging trends of refocusing on the city as the centre of innovation and development.

We finish our chat discussing the importance of community and of sharing failures to achieve SDGs and Smart Community outcomes, plus the power of celebrating even small wins. As always we hope you have enjoyed this episode as much as we have enjoyed making it.

Connect with Calum on LinkedIn, @calumah on Twitter/X and via email [e-mail]

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Podcast Production by Perk Digital