Keynote speech 6: Big Data, IoT and the 2nd sustainable development goal

Abstract

The risks associated with the global food system are widely acknowledged and implicate a complex nexus of factors including increasing population, changing diets, erosion of natural capital, uncertain future climate, food price fluctuations, growing economic disparity and differential access to sufficient safe and nutritious food. The second sustainable development goal (SDG2) aims to address these challenges in every country to ensure not only that we eradicate global hunger, but also that everyone has access to safe and nutritious food that is produced in an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable manner. SDG2 creates an unprecedented challenge to overcome the complexity of coordinating interventions that span the whole food chain (more accurately, ‘food network’) and engage a bewildering breadth of individuals, stakeholders and agencies. The Sustainable Development Solutions Network recommends a generic enabling framework for SDG2 that connects the various stakeholders, and indicates the feedbacks and information flows that are needed to ensure effective execution. This platform is broadly relevant to all countries irrespective of their development status. A clear requirement for the success of this framework is the availability and free exchange of data, together with near real-time analytics on that data to create the necessary knowledge flows. The potential role of data-driven innovation in implementing the enabling framework in developing and western economies will be discussed using various case studies. The opportunities for deploying existing and new kinds of sensor and networking technologies will be explored. This will include the potential role of IoT and Big Data related technologies and an evaluation of the feasibilities and risks associated with their deployment. The presentation will conclude with a set of requirements and a summary of recommendations for future priorities.