The Opening Ceremony on 15 March 2022, 13:00-14:00 CET, will inaugurate this year’s WSIS Forum, which will be held under the theme of “ICTs for Well-Being, Inclusion and Resilience: WSIS Cooperation for Accelerating Progress on the SDGs”. From 15 March onwards, the Forum will take a virtual format, with the final week taking place physically at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva.
11 March 2022
WSIS Forum 2022 |Inauguration
Tuesday, 15 March 2022, 13:00 – 14:00 CET
The Opening Ceremony on 15 March 2022, 13:00-14:00 CET, will inaugurate this year’s WSIS Forum, which will be held under the theme of “ICTs for Well-Being, Inclusion and Resilience: WSIS Cooperation for Accelerating Progress on the SDGs”. From 15 March onwards, the Forum will take a virtual format, with the final week taking place physically at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva.
The Opening Ceremony will feature a number of distinguished panellists, including:
Mr. Houlin Zhao, ITU Secretary-General
Dr. Tawfik Jelassi, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information at UNESCO
Ms. Isabelle Durant, Deputy Secretary-General at UNCTAD
Ms. Mashael Ali Yousef Al Hammadi, Acting Assistant Undersecretary of Government Information Technology Affairs at the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in Qatar
Ms. Karen McCabe, Senior Director of Public Affairs & Marketing at the IEEE Standards Association
Ms. Moira De Roche, Vice President at the International Federation for Information Processing
We look forward to an incisive discussion to inaugurate this year’s WSIS activities.
The Open Consultation Process actively engages governments, civil society, the private sector, academia, the technical community and regional and international organizations in the preparation of the WSIS Forum Agenda and Programme to ensure broad ownership and a participatory and inclusive spirit to the WSIS process.
We are pleased to have received over 350 contributions to date, reflecting the diversity of regions, demographics and stakeholders that is intrinsic to the WSIS process.
Following requests from stakeholders, we are pleased to announce that the deadline for the Open Consultation Process has been extended until 11 March 2022. We invite you to submit your workshop proposals, exhibition requests and speaker recommendations here. We look forward to a dynamic WSIS Forum, to accelerate progress on the WSIS Action Lines and ensure that ICTs remain a key enabler in achieving the globally agreed Sustainable Development Goals.
The WSIS Forum 2022 High-Level Track will take place during the final week of the WSIS Forum 2022, from 30 May to 3 June 2022, at ITU Headquarters in Geneva with enhanced remote participation. The track will feature an Opening segment, High-Level Policy Sessions, a Ministerial round table, High-Level dialogues and many networking events. Moderated by High-Level Track Facilitators (HLTFs), the High-Level policy sessions will gather High-ranking officials of the WSIS Stakeholder community, representing the Government, Private Sector, Civil Society, Academia, Technical Community and International Organizations.
We would like to invite you to cast your vote by 31 March 2022, when we will enter the Selection Phase in which the 90 WSIS Prizes 2022 Champions will be announced and celebrated.
The Winners will be selected among the first five most voted projects and announced at the Special Ceremony during the WSIS Prizes 2022, an annual event which has gathered over 15’000 participants and over 500 decision-makers from 150 countries around the world.
World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) 2022 Celebration
17 May marks the anniversary of the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union and is celebrated every year as the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.
The theme for the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 2022 (WTISD-22) is “Digital technologies for Older Persons and Healthy Ageing”. WTISD 2022 will allow ITU membership, partners and other stakeholders to raise awareness about the important role of telecommunications/ICTs in supporting people to stay healthy, connected and independent, physically, emotionally and financially – to a life of healthy ageing - and as critical for the sustainability of economic and health systems.