Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof. Isa Pantami has been appointed by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to chair this year’s World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) forum, scheduled to hold at ITU Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
In a letter from the Secretary-General of the ITU, conveying the appointment, ITU noted that Pantami appointment to chair the forum is in light of his overall commitment to Information and Knowledge Societies and the active role he has played in the WSIS Process” and it followed consultations with various stakeholders.
The Forum is to be attended by several high-level stakeholders, including Cabinet Ministers from ITU countries.
The WSIS Forum 2022 serves as a key forum for discussing the role of ICTs as a means of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and targets, with due regard to the global mechanism for follow-up and review of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UNGA Resolution A/70/1). The WSIS Forum also provides a platform to track the achievements of WSIS Action Lines in collaboration with the UN Agencies involved and provides information and analysis of the implementation of WSIS Action Lines since 2005.
The WSIS Forum, is co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD with the engagement of 24 other United Nations Agencies, including FAO, ILO, ITC, UNDESA, UNICEF, UNIDO, UNITAR, UNHCR, UNODC, UNEP, UPU, UN Tech Bank, WMO, WIPO, WHO, WFP, UN Women and UN Regional Commissions.
In a follow up to the UN General Assembly outcomes in 2015 on the Overall Review of the implementation of the WSIS Outcomes that called for a close alignment between the WSIS Process and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the overall theme for this year is ”ICTs for Well-Being, Inclusion and Resilience: WSIS Cooperation for Accelerating Progress on the SDGs”. The Forum aims at enhancing cooperation, partnership, innovation, exchange of experiences and good practices in ICTs for sustainable development.
