Agenda

Gitanjali Sah is Head, WSIS and Stakeholder Engagement Division at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and is responsible for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) process. She has more than 15 years of work experience in ICT policy issues at the national, regional and international level. She is an experienced International Civil Servant having worked at several UN Agencies. She holds M.Phil. Development Studies, University of Cambridge, UK and a Masters in Political Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India.

Leunell Chris Buela is an Assistant Professor at the University of the Philippines Los Baños working at the intersection of water science, digitalisation, climate adaptation, and sustainable agri-food systems. He serves as Project Manager of AQUASMART, a youth-led initiative that develops climate-resilient water management solutions for integrated agriculture and aquaculture. 

In 2025, the AQUASMART team from the University of the Philippines Los Baños won the Integrated Water Management for Food Security Prize under the Transformative Research Challenge at the World Food Forum Flagship Event in Rome, Italy. The team is also participating in the WFF Youth Food Lab incubator program, which provides mentorship, capacity development, and investor connections to help scale innovative solutions for a more sustainable food future. 

Through AQUASMART, Buela and his multidisciplinary team are advancing data-driven tools - combining real-time field monitoring, groundwater modeling, and climate-informed forecasting - to improve water-use efficiency, strengthen food security, and support resilient livelihoods for farmers and fishers.