Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs: Developing the Tools for Immersive Storytelling for Diplomats and UN Officials
WWF at the Treaty of the High Seas meetings in New York, UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Immersive Storytelling Tools
UN Headquarters in New York
World Wide Fund for Nature, WWF, is in New York, at the negotiating table, to get the Treaty of the High Seas ready. Listen to my interview with one of their leading policy officers, Jessica Battle, to get up to speed on the conversation about why the ocean and biodiversity are central to addressing climate change.
The meeting started on the 20 February, at the highest political level, and has a very ambitious goal: the establishment of an international agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction, or also known as the Treaty of the High Seas.
The process is convened under the auspices of the United Nations, with the EU steering it, and now the US also announced that will be pushing it to the top of the agenda.
Areas beyond national jurisdiction comprise more than two thirds of the ocean.
The treaty will address designated marine protected areas, human activities regulation, and protection of biodiversity in the High Seas.
WWF Report 2022 on the Role of Nature in Addressing Climate Change
Related Content:
Interview with Romain Trouble, Executive Director, Tara Ocean Foundation
Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs
Immersive Storytelling to Support Diplomats and UN Officials
DPPA: Exploring Possibilities with Mixed Reality (AR/VR)
Listen my interview with Martin Waehlisch, from the Innovation Cell, at the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) in New York, where we discussed its first experiments creating virtual worlds to understand the Colombian peace process at the UN Security Council, how they are building the Metaverse to study conflict mediation, and what are its long-term goals.
We also spoke about some of the outcomes of their research with XR (Mixed Reality), AR/VR (Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality) for diplomacy so far, and how these tools are to be deployed not instead of — but in addition to — to the diplomats toolbox when evaluating crisis, intervening at the Security Council or the General Assembly, and defining policies.
Related content:
Interview with Danish Masood, Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs on their use of AI, Mixed Reality (XR), and how they are building immersive storytelling tools to support diplomats and UN officials. Interview made August 2022.
UNESCO Internet for Trust Global Conference
A global conference organised by UNESCO took place in Paris, from Tuesday the 21 to Thursday 23 February. The goal was to advance the text for the Guidelines for Regulating Digital Platforms: A Multistakeholder Approach to Safeguarding Freedom of Expression and Access to Information.
To make your contribution click here:
Guidelines for regulating digital platforms: a multistakeholder approach to safeguarding freedom of expression and access to information is now available online.
Version 2.0 will be available for comments until March 8, 2023.
The UNESCO Internet for Trust conference was co-sponsored by the European Union, which this past week had a number of bills moving through the hands of MEPs, including the Digital Services Act, on the regulation of online platforms. Very Large Online Platforms now have to disclose the exact number of users that they serve. No approximation, called the EU Commission.
Below are Twitter highlights, keep your eyes peeled for the interviews in the coming weeks:
Listen to our interviews on Apple Podcasts





