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WSIS Prizes 2016: prestigious global ‘ICT4D’ awards to be conferred on 3 May
Online voting saw over 245,000 votes for the year’s best projects
Geneva, 11 April 2016 – ITU will announce the 18 winners of
the prestigious WSIS Prizes at a ceremony at Geneva International Conference
Centre on 3 May, as part of the annual
WSIS Forum 2016
(2 - 6 May).
WSIS Prizes honour outstanding projects that leverage the power of
information and communication technology (ICT) to accelerate socio-economic
development.
More than 400 ICT success stories were submitted for the 2016 edition of the
prize. Out of 311 nominated projects, 179 projects came from the government
sector, 41 from the business sector, 31 from civil society, 14 from
international organizations, and 46 from academia and other entities.
The regional distribution was:
Africa region: 27 projects
Arab region: 86 projects
Asia & Pacific region: 73 projects
Americas region: 53 projects
CIS region: 31 projects
European region: 36 projects
Five nominated projects came from international organizations.
“ITU warmly congratulates this year’s winners and applauds WSIS stakeholders
everywhere for outstanding efforts to harness the power of ICTs to reach the
global connectivity targets that will play such an important part in achieving
the 17 SDGs,” said ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao.
The WSIS Prizes contest is open to all stakeholders: governments, private
sector, civil society, international organizations, academia and others. The
contest comprises
18 categories directly linked to the WSIS Action Lines
outlined in the
Geneva Plan of Action.
ITU recognizes WSIS Champions
In recognition that not every worthy project can win a prestigious WSIS
Prize, this year will see the introduction of the ‘WSIS Champions’ selected from
the 311 nominated ICT global success stories.
Based on the results of the intensive Online Voting Phase, which saw over
245,000 votes cast by WSIS stakeholders, a selection of winning projects was
made by the
Expert Group. Eighteen of these projects will go on to win
WSIS Prizes, and a remaining 70 ‘WSIS Champions’ will receive special
certificates of achievement at a special ceremony prior to the Knowledge Café on
Wednesday 4 May entitled Implementing Best Practices and Addressing
Challenges: Meet the Winners and Champions. The Champions will also be
invited to participate in the WSIS Stocktaking and Prizes Interactive Session on
Friday 6 May 2016.
“WSIS Champions will form a key part of our global and grassroots community
engaged in online and community advocacy, and we are delighted to support and
recognize them,” said Mr Zhao.
Besides the highlighted relevance of the project to the respective WSIS
Action Line as referenced in the Geneva Plan of Action, the selection process
was based on the project’s impact on the community and linkages with the
Sustainable Development Goals (as listed in the
Rules and Guidelines on the WSIS Prizes 2016 website).
All stakeholders are invited to visit WSIS Prizes 2016 website and explore
the
Most Voted Projects page to learn who this year’s 88
Champions are. WSIS Prizes Champions project descriptions will be published in
the WSIS Stocktaking: Success Stories 2016, to be released also during
the WSIS Forum 2016.
Visit WSIS websites for more detailed information about the WSIS Forum 2016
at www.wsis.org/forum
and the WSIS Prizes 2016 at
www.wsis.org/prizes
For more information, please contact:
Sarah Parkes
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information, ITU
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