At a High-Level meeting on the occasion of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum 2015 in Geneva, Switzerland, UNCTAD took over the chair of the United Nations Group on the Information Society (UNGIS).
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At a high-level meeting today, Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi, UNCTAD Secretary-General, took over as the Chairman of the United Nations Group on the Information Society (UNGIS) . UNGIS serves as an inter-agency mechanism for 29 international agencies to improve collaboration towards the achievement of the objectives set at the World Summit on the Information Society and to help maintain ICT-related issues as well as science and technology at the top of the United Nations Agenda.
Dr. Kituyi thanked Mr. Houlin Zhao, the Secretary-General of ITU, for having chaired the Group since 2014.
UNCTAD will act as Chair during an important time for the United Nations. In September 2015, the United Nations Summit will adopt the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Later this year, the United Nations General Assembly will also conduct its 10-year Review of the World Summit on the Information Society. UNCTAD intends to deepen collaboration among the members of UNGIS to promote the role of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in the implementation of the various SDGs.
On the occasion of this WSIS Forum 2015, UNGIS welcomed the efforts by WSIS Action Line facilitators to create a matrix examining the synergies between the WSIS action lines and the draft SDGs. In a comment, Dr. Kituyi encouraged all WSIS stakeholders to study the matrix and provide feedback on how to help ensure that information and communications technologies are duly leveraged as a means of implementation of the SDGs.
