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General Assembly High-level Meeting - 15-16 December 2015


The General Assembly High-level Meeting on the overall review of the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society will take place on 15-16 December 2015 at the UN Headquarters in New York.


This high-level meeting will provide an opportunity for in-depth discussions on important issues in the implementation of the WSIS outcomes, including the progress, gaps and challenges, as well as areas for future actions. 


The draft programme of activities related to the WSIS High-Level Meeting includes three, mutually-reinforcing streams:

  1. The plenary, on 15-16 December in accordance General Assembly rules of procedure, will feature consecutive statements from Member States and non-government entities.
  2. The annual GemTech Awards, organized by UN Women and ITU on the evening of 14 December, recognize outstanding efforts to ensure that girls and women achieve digital equality in all its dimensions.
  3. Sixteen side events, organized by Member States, UN agencies, and non-government stakeholders between 14 and 16 December, will offer interactive exchange on key topics cited in the review and future action.

The co-facilitators particularly draw attention to two events:

  • On the morning of 15 December from 9:00 to 9:45 am in the Trusteeship Council, the UAE and Latvian missions will organize a special welcoming event for all delegates. Encapsulating the content and spirit of the review, the event will hear leading voices in the ICT sector discuss the last 10 years' progress and challenges, and suggested future action for the WSIS community.
  •  On the evening of 15 December, from 18:00 to 20:00, all delegates are invited to a reception in the UN Delegates Dining Room hosted by the co-facilitators.


Kindly note that this list is in addition to the stakeholders who applied to participate in the high-level meeting. Please see the organizations participating in the high-level meeting here.

WSIS +10 High-level Meeting and Parallel Events

Monday 14 December 2015 Side Event Organizer Contact Location1:05
13:05- 14:30  Internet Economies: Opportunities and Challenges - High-level Panel Discussion and Luncheon  UNDESA, in collaboration with ITU, China Association of Science and Technology, and China Energy Fund Committee  DPADM/DESA Delegates Dining Room, UNHQ 
13:15 - 14:30 Dot Africa gTLD: The hope for realising Africa's Digital Presence  ZACR Dot Africa, Mission of African Union                             Lucky Masilela                             
           
                             		UNHQ, Conference Room 7                                                    
13:15 - 14:30  Strengthening the impact of WSIS action lines for sustainable development: showcasing best practices, transferring know-how, fostering partnerships  ITU                                                                                                                                                                                                           Gary Fowlie
Sharon London                                                                                             		 UNHQ, Conference Room 11 
 13:15 - 14:30 IGF: Internet Governance Empowering Sustainable Development  Mission of Brazil and Internet Governance Forum Organizers  Benedicto Fonseca                 UNHQ, Conference Room 1              
18:00 - 20:00 GemTech Awards  UN Women, ITU  Jennifer Breslin
Gary Fowlie 		 Civic Hall, New York

 

 

Tuesday 15 December 2015 Side Event Organizer Contact Location
9:00 - 10:00 Welcome  Mission of the United Arab Emirates, Mission of Latvia          Dane McQueen Trusteeship Council
13:15 - 14:30 Building on WSIS+10: Putting Knowledge Societies at the heart of the 2030 Agenda  
 		 UNESCO Ricardo de Guimaraes Pinto                          UNHQ, Conference Room 12
13:15 - 14:30 Women's Empowerment in the Digital Age: Implementing WSIS Outcome and Agenda 2030  Missions of Costa Rica, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, ITU, UN Women, Microsoft Gary Fowlie
Sharon London
Christine Schneeberger		 UNHQ, Conference Room 6
13:15 - 14:30 Digital Economy and Sustainable Development  ICC-BASIS, AfICTA, African Union  Moctar Yedaly
Elizabeth Tomas-Raynaud		 UNHQ, Conference Room A
                        
15:00 - 16:30 Global Forum on Cyber Expertise  Mission of the Netherlands  Eran Nagan  UNHQ, Conference Room 6
15:00 - 16:45  Measuring the Information Society: Progress to Date and Challenges Ahead Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development  Scarlett Fondeur
                                        		 UNHQ, Conference Room A

 

 

 

Wednesday 16 December 2015 Side Event Organizer Contact Location
11:00- 12:30 Presentation of GIP Digital Watch: A practical tool for navigating the complex field of digital policy  DiploFoundation, Geneva Internet Platform, Internet Society  Jovan Kurbalija UNHQ Conference Room A
13:15 - 14:30 Enabling a Trusted Connected World  ITU Gary Fowlie
Sharon London		 UNHQ, Conference Room 7 
13:15 - 14:30 Towards 2030: Technology, Innovation and Data for Sustainable Development  Mission of Ireland and Global Pulse  John Gilroy UNHQ, Trusteeship Council
13:15 - 14:30 Collaboration for Access and connectivity in developing countries - The best routes of the past and the best practices for the future  The Internet Society  Constance Bommelaer
Karl Gahnberg		 UNHQ. Conference Room 12

 

Background

In December of 2003, the world came together in Geneva at the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) to declare a “common desire and commitment to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society”, and thereby ushered in an era of harnessing the power of information and communication technology (ICT) to contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The resulting Geneva Plan of Action established targets and the eleven action lines, which guide development in specific areas. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) recognized the achievements of the Geneva phase in its resolution 59/220.  

The second phase of WSIS, conducted in Tunis in 2005, built upon the achievements of the Geneva Plan, with the resulting Tunis Agenda addressing additional issues, such as financing and internet governance. It also requested the Secretary-General, in consultation with the Chief  Executive Board for Coordination (CEB) to establish within the CEB, a United Nations Group on the Information Society (UNGIS), consisting of the relevant UN organizations with the mandate to facilitate the implementation of the WSIS outcomes. 


Paragraph 111 of the Tunis Agenda, endorsed by the General Assembly in resolution 60/252 , requested the General Assembly to undertake the overall review of the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society in 2015.  In response, the General Assembly in resolution 68/302 , decided that the overall review will be concluded by a two-day high-level meeting of the General Assembly, to be preceded by an intergovernmental process that also takes into account inputs from all relevant  stakeholders of the World Summit on the Information Society.