A few years ago, the United Nations established 17 sustainable development goals created to provide a more sustainable, equitable planet for many generations to come. Since then, the growing impact of climate change and the coronavirus pandemic have only widened the gap between the haves and the have nots in nearly every one of these areas.
So the question arises: What can the world’s most innovative technology companies do today to help accelerate progress towards these 17 sustainability goals?
A Call for Code = a call to action
That is the challenge put forth by the 2022 Call for Code, the world’s largest “Tech for Good” initiative. Call for Code was created by David Clark Cause and supported by Founding Partner IBM and Charitable Partner United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner.
Now it its fifth year, Call for Code is a global program that invites developers and problem-solvers around the world to build and contribute to sustainable, open-source technology projects that address social and humanitarian issues, while ensuring the top solutions are deployed to make a demonstrable difference.
Call for Code has led to the creation and deployment of more than 20,000 applications for humanitarian needs and challenges, addressing natural disasters, first responders, COVID-19, systemic racism, and clean water access.
This year’s solutions will focus on driving real progress towards many of the sustainability goals mapped out by the UN above, including clean energy, water access, biodiversity, food insecurity, equal education and more.
We have a long and trusted partnership of 19+ years with IBM and we share a common vision to create solutions that help address some of the world’s most important social challenges.
We are eager to help address some of the many sustainability challenges through Call for Code with IBM and the developer community, employing open source-powered hybrid cloud and AI solutions that can scale.
Persistent answers the Call for a fifth straight year
As Call for Code has grown to involve developers from more than 180 countries in just five years, Persistent Systems has been an active participant from the beginning, and our commitment to this worthwhile cause has grown each year. This year we’re pleased to join the effort as an official Changemaker Sponsor.
This partnership with Call for Code is a natural fit for Persistent’s more than 18,000 developers, engineers, and innovators worldwide for three reasons:
- Solving challenges is what we do: For more than 30 years, businesses around the world and across a variety of industries have looked to Persistent to help them solve their most intractable challenges and maximize their greatest profitable growth opportunities.
- Our ties to IBM run deep: Since 2002, Persistent has been a leading development partner for IBM and successfully applied the latest IBM products and services to help businesses digitally transform.
We have over 2,300 IBM-focused engineers ready to help our clients unlock the power of IBM analytics, cloud, IoT, IT infrastructure, and security tools across 50 IBM brands and over 125 products. Few solution providers on the planet have such deep ties with Call for Code’s Founding Partner. - We’re called to be Agents of Change in our community and around the world: As a truly global organization, we see the impact inequality has on our society, so we’re committed to effecting positive change in three critical areas of need:
- Education – Improving infrastructure and education quality
- Health – Providing preventive and curative healthcare services
- Community Development – Enabling the adoption of sustainable development practices
Our Persistent Foundation allows us to orchestrate our global volunteer and donation resources and deploy them strategically for maximum return, transparency, and accountability.
Ready to take on the challenge
The challenges issued by the Call for Code each year are daunting, but our participating teams from around the world never fail to deliver innovative solutions that address these seemingly intractable challenges head on.
As the Call for Code 2022 gets underway with a focus on sustainability solutions this year, all of us at Persistent are incredibly honored and pleased to grow our support for this wonderful cause.
It’s an unmatched opportunity to apply the same problem solving, development, and engineering skills our customers rely on each day towards a more sustainable, equitable future for us all.
