Speech by Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-GeneralOpening remarks - 2nd Physical Meeting on the Thematic Aspects and Innovations on the Format (WSIS Forum 2017 Open Consultation Process)
14 February 2017, ITU Headquarters, Geneva
Distinguished colleagues,
Ladies and gentlemen,
On behalf of ITU, the host of this meeting and the co-organizers, UNESCO, UNCTAD and UNDP, I welcome all onsite and remote participants to the second physical meeting of the WSIS Forum 2017 Open Consultation Process on the Thematic Aspects and Format.
The WSIS Forum, is a joint effort of the UN system, with engagement of all its sister agencies, bringing to the forefront new challenges and opportunities of crossectoral approach necessary to attain the SDGs via ICTs.
It is proving to be an increasingly successful platform for discussion and sharing of best practices in the use of ICTs for development. It is the largest such event with last year close to 2000 participants including 85 government ministers and 250 high–level representatives.
The overall theme for this year’s Forum is “Information and Knowledge Societies for SDGs”. It will be held from 12-16 June at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva. I invite you to block these dates in your calendar if you have not already done so!
The beauty of the WSIS Forum is in its truly inclusive and multistakeholder character. Through this open consultation process, we build the Agenda and the Progamme of the Forum TOGETHER so that all the voices are represented.
To date, we have received several excellent suggestions on the topics and the format of the Forum, we encourage those who haven’t yet done so to submit their input through the online form before the deadline of 20th February.
Looking back at last year’s participation we are working hard to get more private sector involved through collaboration with organizations like ICC and GeSI.
This year we are also planning several innovations like Virtual Reality for SDGs, TEDx and Hackathon for Health, in collaboration with World VR Forum, TEDxGeneva and IEEE, respectively.
The WSIS process emphasises multistakeholder collaboration and cooperation across all regions and sectors and is strengthened at the international, regional and national level by three main pillars - the WSIS Forum and its the Regional Reviews, WSIS Prizes and Stocktaking, and WSIS Measurement.
At the regional level ITU is working with the regional UN commissions and other relevant regional ICT organizations to strengthening the overall WSIS implementation process.
Last October ITU assisted UNESCAP and ECA with the regional review for the Asia Pacific Region and Africa respectively. We invited some WSIS Prize winners from the region to showcase their winning projects, which provided real examples of the impact of ICTs in achieving the SDGs. It was particularly gratifying to learn that the award of the WSIS prizes greatly assisted the development and success of these projects.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the early bird contributions to the WSIS Fund in Trust and for the confirmation of partnerships for the WSIS Forum 2017 by Government of Poland, Government of Philippines, Government of Switzerland, GeSI, Vimplecom, ICANN, IEEE, IFIP, CMAI and TEMA India and Swiss Engineering. WSIS Forum relies entirely on voluntary contributions and so we are very grateful for this support and would encourage others to contribute. The Secretariat has only a small team to support WSIS Forum and they do an incredible job with very limited resources.
I wish you a very productive and successful meeting.