Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General

ITU Statement to the United Nations General Assembly

15 December 2015, New York, United States

Excellencies,
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a honour to deliver this statement on behalf of ITU at this UN General Assembly WSIS High-Level Meeting, especially in the year we are celebrating ITU's 150^th anniversary.

Let me congratulate the co-facilitators, the Member States and all the stakeholders that contributed to the successful review culminating in the excellent Output Document which will be the basis for implementing the WSIS Action Lines over the coming years.

Since 1998, when ITU's membership first proposed a World Summit on the Information Society there have been incredible advances in ICT development.

Nonetheless, as we all know, there is still much to be done. In the developing world, almost two thirds of people still have no access to the Internet, and in the UN-designated LDCs only one person in ten is online.

With well over half the world's people still unconnected to the Internet, it is still much too early to talk about the Information Society in any kind of global sense.

ITU's mission is to connect the world and we shall continue the effort to bring the benefits of the information society to all the world's citizens – in developed and developing countries, in rural as well as urban areas, regardless of their gender, and regardless of any disabilities.

This has been an important and successful year with the agreement on financing for development in July, the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals in September, the Paris Agreement at COP21 last week, and now the conclusion of the Overall Review of WSIS.

ICTs will be key to the implementation of all these challenging agreements.

ITU with its broad membership of 700 private sector entities, over 100 universities, and civil society, in addition of our 193 Member States, is ideally placed to actively contribute to all these efforts.

The annual WSIS Forum, hosted by ITU and co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNCTAD and UNDP, in collaboration with all UN agencies, has become a global multi-stakeholder platform for coordination of the implementation of the WSIS Outcomes, information exchange, knowledge creation and the sharing of best practices and I would like to thank all WSIS Stakeholders for their commitment and dedication to the WSIS Forum.

The Forum will continue to evolve by strengthening the synergies between the WSIS Action Lines and the SDGs, taking into account the outcomes of the Overall Review.

At this year's WSIS Forum, ITU coordinated the WSIS Action Lines and SDG matrix, a tool developed with a number of UN agencies to map how ICTs through the WSIS Action Lines can contribute to the implementation of the SDGs. We hope that the Matrix will serve as an easy reference for stakeholders engaged in shaping the future of both the SDGs and the WSIS processes beyond 2015 and be the basis for the future work of the WSIS Forum.

I call for your support to the WSIS Forum and look forward to welcoming you to the next Forum taking place from 2-6 May 2016 at ITU's Headquarters in Geneva.

Let me also encourage you to contribute to the development of the themes, Programme, Agenda and format of the Forum through the Open Consultation Process which aims to improve the Forum's efficiency and effectiveness. The open consultation process has active engagement of governments, civil society, academia and businesses.

One of our most important priorities in the WSIS Forum is the sharing of best practices. In this context, we have announced this week more than 150 initial nominations for the 2016 WSIS Prizes that will be awarded during the Forum. These are projects that support the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines and by doing so the implementation of the SDGs. Let me encourage all of you to engage in the contest, which is open to all WSIS stakeholders.

So the WSIS vision is more valid than ever and ITU remains fully committed towards strengthening the Implementation of the WSIS Outcomes.

The year 2015 has been an historic year, a very busy but ultimately very successful year. So let me wish you all a good end of year holiday and a very healthy, prosperous and successful 2016.

Thank you.