ITU has released the final list of 345 information and communication technology (ICT) success stories selected for consideration by the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2017. These were chosen following a comprehensive review of close to 500 projects submitted by the WSIS stakeholder community and nominated by an expert group. This is by far the highest number of submissions since the annual WSIS Prizes initiative was launched six years ago.

Stakeholders are invited to vote until 30 April 2017 for their favorite entry at the WSIS Prizes 2017 website. Based on the results, winning projects will be selected by the expert group from among the five projects that have received the most votes in each of the 18 prize categories.

The 18 winners will be presented with awards at the WSIS Prizes 2017 ceremony during WSIS Forum 2017. Additionally, 72 WSIS Prize 2017 Champions (the first four runner-up projects in each category) will be recognized during the special ceremony dedicated to their achievements.

"WSIS Prizes are the unique global recognition of WSIS stakeholders as winners and champions for their excellence in supporting the implementation of WSIS outcomes, in particular WSIS Action Lines, to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals," said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao. "WSIS Prizes have proven to foster greater investment and support for winners' projects, and 2017 will be no exception."

WSIS Forum 2017 represents the world's largest annual multi-stakeholder gathering of the "ICT for development" community, and will be held 12-16 June 2017 in Geneva.

Follow the process and learn how ICT projects submitted for WSIS Prizes 2017 are enabling the advancement of the SDGs at bit.ly/WSIS2017-VOTE.