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World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
follow-up
meeting opens for ten-year review of Summit outcomes
Prizes awarded for implementation of WSIS targets
Geneva, 10 June 2014 – ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I.
Touré announced winners of the WSIS Project Prizes 2014 at
the WSIS+10
High-Level Event, which opened today. The meeting focuses attention
on the ten-year review of the implementation of Outcomes of the World Summit on
the Information Society (WSIS), which took place in Geneva in 2003 and Tunis in
2005. WSIS+10 will set fresh priorities to strengthen the catalytic role of ICTs
in the post-2015 development agenda.
A growing range of entities including governments, international
organizations, the private sector, civil society, academia and others
representing cross-cutting sectors, participate in the WSIS Project Prizes
contest with a view to sharing best practices on the implementation of the WSIS
outcomes. This engagement highlights the inclusiveness and multi-stakeholder
character of the WSIS Process to work towards building the information society.
More than 140 projects were nominated for the 2014 contest.
The WSIS Project Prizes 2014 contest provides a platform to
identify and showcase success stories and models that could be easily
replicated, empower communities at the local level, and recognize the efforts of
stakeholders towards achieving the WSIS goals.
Seventeen winners were awarded prizes in recognition of their outstanding
contribution towards strengthening the implementation of Outcomes of the World
Summit on the Information Society (WSIS):
- Ministry of Information Technology and Communications,
Colombia
- Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications, Ghana
- GEOSYS, Algeria
- Mohammed Bin Rashid Smart Learning Programme, United Arab
Emirates
- Information Technology Authority, Oman
- Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, Poland
- Prime Minister's Office, Bangladesh
- Ministry of Education, Saudi Arabia
- Abu Dhabi Systems & Information Centre, United Arab Emirates
- Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Hyderabad,
India
- Egypt Information and Communications Technology Trust Fund
(MCIT–UNDP), Egypt
- İSKİ, Turkey
- Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Uruguay
- Kuwait University, Kuwait
- Cubarte, National Centre of Informatics in Culture, Cuba
- Philmon Press P.L.C, Ethiopia
- Ministry of Higher Education, Scientific Research and
Information and Communication Technologies, Tunisia
To learn more about the prize-winning projects and to hear from the winners,
the
World Café: WSIS Stocktaking: Beyond Excellence in Implementation of ICT
Projects is open to the public on 11 June at 12:15 in ITU. Detailed
descriptions of winning projects are highlighted in the 2014 edition of the WSIS
Stocktaking Report on Success Stories.
Background
WSIS Project Prizes is an international contest developed in response to
requests from WSIS stakeholders to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and
recognize individuals, governments, civil society, local, regional and
international agencies, research institutions and private sector companies for
outstanding success in implementing development-oriented strategies that
leverage the power of ICTs. The WSIS Project Prizes contest is an integral part
of the WSIS stocktaking process (www.wsis.org/stocktaking).
The contest was held for the first time in 2012, and rapidly gained attention
and popularity within the ICT for Development (ICT4D) community.
Video interviews and photos of winners along with live and archived event
webcasts and transcripts of speeches can be found at the event Newsroom at http://groups.itu.int/stocktaking/WSISProjectPrizes2014.aspx
or on the main event website at www.wsis.org/forum.
Be part of the WSIS discussions and get the latest WSIS news on
Twitter at #WSIS.
For more information, please see
www.wsis.org/prizes
or contact:
Sanjay Acharya
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, ITU
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