WSIS Forum highlights technologies for resilience, inclusion

This year's World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum will culminate between 30 May and 3 June with a "High-level Track", a week of interactive high-level dialogues, ministerial roundtables, and award ceremonies for digital innovation to support sustainable economies and societies.

These final sessions conclude 11 weeks of debates and discussions among leaders and influencers aiming to drive sustainable digital transformation around the world. Ceremonies include the awarding of the WSIS Prizes 2022, an award for the Hackathon on ICTs for Indigenous Languages, and the WSIS “Healthy Ageing and Innovation" prize.

The WSIS Forum aligns technology uptake with all 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, with a focus this year on solutions boosting well-being, resilience, and inclusion.

Panel discussions will feature ministers, ambassadors, parliamentarians, heads of regulatory bodies, C-suite executives, and mayors, along with key gender and youth influencers dedicated to digital transformation.

The final week takes place at ITU Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, with options for remote participation as well as in-person attendance.

WHAT: The final week of World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum 2022.

Virtual build-up

Amid the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, information and communication technologies (ICTs) have proven crucial. Continued innovation and accelerated, inclusive uptake will be crucial to ensure a sustainable global future for all.

WSIS Forum 2022 has thus far presented 100 virtual sessions with more than 500 speakers, with over 5,000 participants engaging online.

The programme this year is completely crowdsourced, ensuring broad ownership among multiple stakeholders, including governments, UN agencies, civil society, the private sector, academia, and the technical community.

ICT experts and practitioners have addressed challenges and opportunities in implementing WSIS Action Lines such as accessibility and inclusion, environment, cybersecurity, emerging technologies, gender mainstreaming, indigenous peoples and cultures, healthy ageing, youth, older persons, and more.

The WSIS Forum represents the world's largest annual gathering of the “ICT for Development" community.

Held annually since 2009, the gathering is hosted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and co-organized by ITU with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Development Fund (UNDP), and United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), in collaboration with more than 32 UN system entities.