Dear all,
Welcome to the September edition of the newsletter.
This has been a particularly rich month for the digital development agenda. At UNGA81, artificial intelligence (AI) featured prominently in discussions on international cooperation, with a growing focus on implementation - including national AI strategies, capacity-building and the investments needed to ensure that developing countries can participate meaningfully in the AI transformation.
Just before, In Geneva, the WTO’s first World Trade & Tech Day and its Public Forum brought the trade dimension into sharper focus, highlighting the increasingly close relationship between AI, digital technologies and international trade, and the continued expansion of digitally delivered services.
Two major reports released this month also provide additional ground for reflection. The WTO’s World Trade Report 2026 estimates that AI could increase global trade by 40% by 2040, with the largest gains in digitally deliverable services, which already account for 55% of global services exports. The World Bank’s World Development Report 2026 highlights that while middle-income countries accounted for half of ChatGPT traffic within just six months of its launch, adoption remains highly unequal and the infrastructure, skills and institutional capabilities needed to benefit from AI remain unevenly distributed.
These discussions featured as well in the broader digital governance agenda, as reflected in the Open Consultations and Multistakeholder Advisory Group meeting preparations for the first annual Internet Governance Forum, since the IGF became a permanent UN forum.
Among the issues to cover this month, two gender-related publications are worth particular attention. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2026, marking twenty years of measurement, offers a sobering reminder of the slow pace of progress: across the economies tracked since 2006, the gender gap has narrowed by 5.2 percentage points, with overall parity still 120 years away. And, since we are extensively covering AI in this edition, the report highlights that women account for fewer than one in five AI engineers. WIPO provides an equally striking perspective from the innovation ecosystem: women represented only 18.1% of inventors listed in international patent applications in 2025.
These figures are a timely reminder that technological progress does not automatically translate into more inclusive outcomes.
Take the time to delve in this information-rich edition, there is much more to explore, and much to reflect on as digital trade and AI continue to reshape the development landscape.
Enjoy the read!