News Desk
GENEVA: The 15th annual World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum concluded yesterday following 11 weeks of virtual events that saw attendees from UN agencies, private sector, governments, academia and civil society joining together online to review their progress on using information and communication technology (ICT) to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
“This year marked our 15-year milestone and we celebrated the remarkable way digital technologies have transformed people’s lives for the better around the globe,” said Houlin Zhao, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). “The WSIS Forum was a pioneering summit when it was first launched. We anticipated a time when pupils would enhance their studies online, agriculture would be more productive thanks to satellite imaging, health care would benefit from better patient diagnosis and treatment and climate change could be monitored through remote sensing. Technology advances have exceeded our expectations and we believe the next 15 years will show even more progress in the use of ICTs to achieve sustainable development and improve the lives of the world’s citizens.”
For over a decade and a half, the pioneering WSIS Forum has brought together many different players involved in shaping an Internet beneficial to society and empowering individuals. This ‘multi-stakeholder model’ became accepted as the main way forward for the information and knowledge societies. The Forum’s commitment to connect the unconnected has spearheaded many initiatives to enable everyone to benefit from digital technologies, wherever they are, and however they live.
The many announcements, launches, agreements and commitments at this year’s summit highlighted the progress relating to e-Government, cybersecurity, environmental impact, digital accessibility, COVID-19, education, gender equality and youth and older persons, ethics and wellbeing.
Hosted and co-organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialized United Nations agency for ICTs, the WSIS Forum remains the leading global platform for multi-stakeholder collaboration to drive global development and accelerate the achievement of the SDGs. A cumulative 15,000 participants took part in more than 160 virtual sessions organized by WSIS stakeholders, with thousands of participants from over 150 countries following the live broadcast on social media. WSIS Forum 2020 was chaired by the Dominican Republic. The Forum was co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD in close collaboration with all United Nations agencies.
