‘Buenos Aires Declaration’ captures Latin America’s commitment to Smart Sustainable Cities
The 1st Latin-American Forum on ‘Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things in Smart Sustainable Cities’ in Buenos Aires, 29-30 May, has concluded with the adoption of the ‘Buenos Aires Declaration’, a call for Latin America to investigate the policy innovation required to capitalize on new technologies in the transition to smart cities.
The Buenos Aires Declaration recognizes that cities are home to 80 per cent of Latin America’s population of 650 million. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT), agreed the forum’s participants, demonstrate great potential to contribute to greater efficiency in city operations and public services more attentive to citizens’ needs.
Download the declaration: English | Spanish
The forum brought together leading Latin-American thinkers to discuss the transition to smart cities from the perspectives of policy, regulation, business and technology.
The forum was hosted by the Ministry of Modernization of Argentina and co-organized by ITU, the Ministry of Modernization of Argentina; the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC); the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO); the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL); the Comisión Técnica Regional de Telecomunicaciones (COMTELCA); and Telecomunicaciones de América Latina (Asiet).
The Buenos Aires Declaration
The declaration highlights the value of real-time data analytics drawing on the data generated by smart technologies in supporting resource-efficient ‘circular economy’. Ethical data processing and management, building trust between citizens and data collectors, was acknowledged as fundamental to achieving the full potential of AI and IoT.
The declaration points to the importance of international standards in supporting the interconnection and interoperability of city systems. Standardization and regulation, highlights the declaration, will also make an essential contribution to protections against IoT-specific security threats.
Reaffirming Latin America’s commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the declaration emphasizes the importance of smart cities to Goals 8, 9 and 11 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in parallel signaling support for the guiding principles of the United for Smart Sustainable Cities initiative (U4SSC) and the Digital Agenda for Latin America and the Caribbean (eLAC2020).
Call to Action
The declaration’s Call to Action encourages Latin-American leaders to:
- Raise awareness of the role of AI and IoT in the development of smart cities, building confidence and trust in the application of AI and IoT in smart cities.
- Revamp public policies to prepare for an AI future, developing policy to prepare for AI’s influence on job markets and the associated demand for innovation in education and skill development.
- Promote the production and supply of enabling technologies for smart cities, capitalizing on AI and smart technologies in the IoT family to develop smart cities tailored to local needs.
- Encourage public-private collaboration and partnership, enhancing cooperation among countries, cities and organizations in sharing knowledge and best practices relevant to AI and associated policy frameworks.
- Leverage the potential of AI in securing IoT, introducing elements of AI into the design of IoT systems to enhance security, privacy and trust.
- Build a ‘Smart City Platform’ to establish urban-development milestones and share related data and best practices, an open platform inclusive of citizens able to support the collective innovation of citizens, industry sectors and public-sector bodies.
- Incorporate AI solutions into public services, capitalizing on AI-powered data analytics to support more informed decision-making by administrative bodies.
Learn more about ITU work in support of smart sustainable cities
