WSIS Prizes is a unique international
contest developed in response to requests from the WSIS stakeholders to
create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognize individuals,
governments, civil society, local, regional and international agencies,
research institutions and private-sector companies for outstanding
success in implementing development oriented strategies that leverage
the power of ICTs as an enabler of the development. The WSIS Prizes
contest is an integral part of the WSIS stocktaking process;
set up in 2004 to assist WSIS implementation and follow-up. The contest
was held for the first time in 2012, and rapidly gained attention and
popularity within the ICT for Development (ICT4D) community.
Building upon the outcomes of the United
Nations General Assembly Overall Review on WSIS as well as the 2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development, the WSIS Prizes 2016 reflect close
linkages with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The
WSIS Prizes contest serves as the platform for identifying and
showcasing the success stories across the WSIS Action Lines defined in
the Geneva Plan of Action and SDGs. It also provides us with models that
can be replicated in the interests of empowering the community at the
local level, providing everyone with an opportunity to participate in
the contest and, most importantly, recognizing the efforts made by
stakeholders to contribute to the development of society and their
commitment to achievement of both the WSIS goals and SDGs.
Building upon the outcomes of the United Nations General Assembly Overall Review on WSIS (Res. A/70/125) as well as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Res. A/70/1),
the WSIS Prizes, facilitated by ITU in coordination with all WSIS
stakeholders, the WSIS Prizes contest, while continuing to
highlight progress made towards achieving the WSIS goals, will also
continue to reflect to which of the newly proposed Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) the submitted projects are mostly linked to.
All stakeholders are urged to encourage
their networks to join the WSIS Prizes process, including the
multistakeholder open consultation process for the WSIS Forum, in
order to ensure that all features correspond to the real needs of the
WSIS implementation process towards 2025. Phase one will open the call
for submissions to the contest of the WSIS Prize. Starting from 11 September 2017 until 2 January,
all stakeholders are invited to submit WSIS related projects to the
WSIS Prize contest. In order to process the submission,
stakeholders are requested to complete the submission form for WSIS
Prize.
ICTs are enablers for sustainable
development, and reporting on ICT success stories to best showcase the
possible achievement of SDGs is the major objective of WSIS Stocktaking
process, including WSIS Prizes, as already recognized and anticipated by
the WSIS stakeholders community. The contest thus comprises 18
categories which are linked to the 11 WSIS Action Lines outlined in the
Geneva Plan of Action and SDGs.
