The WSIS is the largest annual gathering of the world’s “ICT for development” community, including UN agencies, governments, civil society, and ICT industry representatives.
The gathering this week is aimed at coming up with strategies on how to more effectively harness the power and reach of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals in crucial areas like health and education.
The Philippine delegation is being spearheaded by CICT chair Ivan Uy and CICT director for policy planning Philip Varilla.
This year’s WSIS Forum also welcomed more than 70 members of parliament and many other senior government figures. Over 1,000 representatives from around 140 countries are expected to attend the week-long event.
In his opening address, ITU secretary-general Hamadoun Touré stressed the importance of broadband to national economic and social development.
“I think we are all very much aware of how close we are to the 2015 deadline for meeting the WSIS targets and the Millennium Development Goals. We have made quite extraordinary progress in terms of connectivity, the creation of an enabling environment, and cybersecurity. The next major step must be to repeat the ‘mobile miracle’ for broadband Internet,” he said.
The Philippines is represented by CICT chair Ivan Uy and CICT director for policy planning Philip Varilla.
The forum will also serve as the venue for the UN Group on the Information Society’s first meeting of the open consultation process on the overall review of the implementation of the WSIS outcomes.
Stakeholders will jointly brainstorm on the action plan for the Review Process (WSIS+10), to be held 10 years after the conclusion of the Summit, as recommended in the Tunis Agenda.
In addition to reviewing progress towards the WSIS targets set for 2015, this year’s WSIS Forum will foster interactive debate and information exchange on a wide range of key topics such as rural development, multilingualism, environmental sustainability, education, healthcare and innovation.
