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Girls in ICT

Side Events

WTSA-12 Side Events

During WTSA, three side events will cover issues that are expected to feature in the future work of ITU-T. Open to all, they will take place in the evenings of the first week of the event, starting at 1800 on 21 November. Each will mainstream accessibility and connecting all of the world’s population to ICTs as overarching themes.

Side event on e-health — 21 November

Across the world, health services and systems are changing to reflect the need for improvements in the quality, safety, accessibility and cost-effectiveness of healthcare. The use of ICTs in healthcare – e-health – has already demonstrated its value and contribution to enabling these changes. An emerging problem is the lack of interoperability between proprietary systems. As countries adopt e-health, they will need to integrate a patchwork of legacy systems with medical devices and information systems. At the same time, they will need to ensure there is a foundation on which stakeholders can innovate, since e-health can only meet its potential for achieving seamless, personalized and integrated care accessible to all if based on open and interoperable global standards.

This WTSA-12 side event will feature e-health experts showcasing different areas of e-health applications. The discussion will also focus on the next steps to be taken in standardization to realize the benefits of e-health.

Draft programme


Side event on ICT Innovations — 22 November

By providing interoperability, standards provide a solid foundation on which innovation can take place to develop new, smarter solutions. The market size of developing countries provides unique opportunities for leveraging network effects to drive innovation. Thus, developing countries are expected to play an increasingly important role in ICT innovation.

The WTSA side event on ICT Innovations will explore the link between ICT innovations and standards in emerging markets, and discuss standardization requirements.

Draft programme


Side event on Disaster Relief Systems, Network Resiliency and Recovery — 23 November

As recent events have shown the ability for networks to survive disasters is crucial for the coordination of rescue efforts and a return to normality.

This side event will review network resilience and recovery of infrastructure following disasters and standardization requirements for all of these issues. In addition, it will examine ICTs supporting disaster relief for individuals (to enable victims to notify relatives, friends, or employers) and disaster relief guidance (to show victims the routes to evacuation shelters, home, etc.).

Draft programme