2016•05•29     Lisbon

During his visit to Portugal on 12–13 May 2016, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon met with the staff of the four UN entitities present in Portugal: International Labour Organization (ILO), International Organization for Migration (IOM), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and UNU Operating Unit Policy-Driven Electronic Governance (UNU-EGOV).

During the meeting, at the ILO Office in Lisbon, the heads of offices introduced their organisations: Mafalda Troncho representing ILO Marta Bronzin representing IOM, Helder Muteia representing FAO, and Tomasz Janowski representing UNU-EGOV.

Dr Janowski briefly introduced:

• the thematic focus of UNU-EGOV (the intersection of governance, technology, and development)
• the different kinds of activities that the unit carries out at this intersection (policy-relevant research, development of research-based policy instruments, and research–policy bridging, including the ICEGOV conference series)
• collaborative activities currently carried out by UNU-EGOV with other UN and intergovernmental organisations (including UNESCO, UNDP, and OSCE)

He also stressed that the UN Members States are making significant progress in utilising Digital Government to reduce operational costs; strengthen collaboration, delivery, and communication; and secure government’s online presence. He suggested that in order to utilise this potential and match the progress made by the Member States — many of which look to the specialised UN agencies for guidance in this area — the UN system should consider how Digital Government could benefit its own operations and interaction with Member States and their (increasingly digital) governments.

The Secretary-General was accompanied by his spouse (Ban Soon-taek) as well as Miguel de Serpa Soares, UN Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Counsel, and Taye-Brook Zerihoun, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs.