The WSIS Forum is an “international multi-stakeholder engagement” to
meet the goals of the World Summit on the Information Society which met
in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005, according to the UN
International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the host and main organizer of the event.
The Summit set out Action Plans in several key areas for ICT
development, including ICT infrastructure and capacity building,
cybersecurity and ICT applications in key areas such as e-Government,
e-Learning, e-Health and e-Environment.
“Ten years after the Geneva phase of WSIS, we are witnessing some of the
most innovative developments in the ICT sector,” ITU Secretary-General
Hamadoun I. Touré told a press conference held today on the sidelines of
the opening of the Forum.
“Mobile phone subscriptions are reaching the 7 billion mark,” he noted.
“In 2012, two and a half billion people used the Internet from one
device or another.
“The thrust now is to drive content through enhanced broadband access
that will feed both rural communities and urban centres,” he continued.
“It is now time to look at WSIS+10 and how we can continue the momentum
for the future development of ICTs, which govern so many aspects of our
day-to-day life.”
During the Forum, high-level dialogues with Government ministers and
representatives from business and civil society will examine issues such
as women’s empowerment in the information society; smart climate change
monitoring; ICT innovations and standards; cybersecurity; and youth and
ICTs.
Also on the agenda is ICTs and the so-called ‘post-2015 agenda’ – the
global development agenda beyond 2015, the deadline for meeting the
internationally agreed anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs).
“Together we will address a range of issues within the global
information society and we will reflect on how ICTs continue to shape
the daily lives of individuals, businesses, communities and
governments,” said Mr. Touré.
Addressing today’s opening, the ITU chief said that this year’s WSIS
Forum is a unique opportunity to “develop consensus on what is needed
for the WSIS process in the future, to ensure that the bottom-up
approach of the WSIS process is preserved and that the decisions
concerning modalities also respect the real requirements of the use of
ICTs for socio-economic development, while ensuring growth in the ICT
ecosystem itself.”
Also today, the ITU awarded prizes to 18 recipients in recognition of
outstanding effort and achievement in the implementation of WSIS-related
activities. The winners include the education ministries of Saudi
Arabia, the Civil Service Commission of Kuwait, the University of La
Punta in Argentina, and Child Helpline International from the
Netherlands.
Read the original post at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44898&Cr=information+and+communications&Cr1=#.UZ9HMaxGrDc
No comments:
Post a Comment