WSIS Forum 2018 provide a spotlight on how ICTs can help eradicate poverty and hunger

The International Telecommunication Union’s (ITU) headquarters was a busy location with more than 2,500 ICT experts from around the world arriving for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

The theme of WSIS Forum 2018 is ‘Leveraging ICTs to Build Information and Knowledge Societies for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)’ and seeks to explore ways and possibilities that can help meet the sustainable development challenge.

The UN Secretary General Mr. António Guterre set the meeting tone when he said, ‘in today’s digital world Internet access is imperative, connecting the unconnected is crucial to achieving the 2030 agenda for sustainable development...and is essential in bringing in people from the margins and giving people a voice”. Listen to the video message here

This year’s WSIS has raised the spotlight on how ICTs can help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including with a new Youth in ICTs track to leverage the skills of young people aged 18-35.

WSIS Forum 2018 maintained the High-level tracks which focuses on Policy Statements from the high-ranking officials of the WSIS Stakeholder community, from Government, Private Sector, Civil Society, Academia and International Organizations.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Impact Hub Geneva organized a Hackathon called, #HackAgainstHunger which saw more than 75 coders, food and agriculture experts and innovators to develop new ICT solutions to end world hunger.

The hackathons aimed to promote competitions and projects to develop/prototype innovative applications and support the arising of start-ups and young developers and entrepreneurs.  

FAO also held a special session entitled, "Building a framework for Digital Innovation in Agriculture" which was a panel discussion with remote participation on ICTs and Agriculture. The focus of this discussion was how the ICTs can help in the challenge to feed the 9.6 billion people who will inhabit the planet by 2050, and food production must increase by 70% by 2050. Read more here 

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