FAO at WSIS +20 High-Level Event 2024: ‘Process for Progress- Reflecting and Building on 20 years of digital journey’

Over the last 20 years, since its implementation in its first two phases, Geneva in 2003 and Tunis in 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum has been instrumental in shaping global discussions and policies around the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for development worldwide. 

‘This year's anniversary with the celebration of WSIS+20 Forum High Level Event not only marks a decisive milestone in our common digital journey and the implementation of the Forum's original goal, towards building people-centric, inclusive, and development-oriented information and knowledge societies’ says Màximo Torero, Chief Economist at FAO. ‘It also brings us  a unique opportunity to truly reflect on the achievements realized so far and set a sustainable way forward, for an ethical and safe use of ICTs in a landscape that is now more fast paced than ever with the emergence of new disruptive technologies such as AI, capitalizing on lessons learnt and best practices, built through joint efforts at the global level’ he adds.   

The WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event is scheduled to be held from 27 to 31 May 2024, co-organized by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and co-hosted by ITU and the Swiss Confederation, with the support of remote participation. It will serve as a platform for multi-stakeholder discussions with the objective of taking stock of the achievements and key trends, challenges and opportunities since the Geneva Plan of Action in 2003. The WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event will also be a unique occasion for the international community to assess opportunities for global digital cooperation and join forces towards a forward-looking and reinvigorated shared vision, informing the UN Summit of the Future.

This year again, as facilitator of WSIS Action Line C7 on E agriculture, FAO is organizing a session on Thursday 30th May 2024, 11:00-11:45 CEST on ‘The Future of Digital Agriculture: Process for Progress- Reflecting and Building on WSIS 20 years’ journey’.

This year also, under the WSIS Prizes, FAO's Digital Services Portfolio (DSP) has been recognized as WSIS Champion Project, under the category C7 E agriculture. This great achievement comes out of 1049 submitted projects in total, 360 nominations and more than 2M votes reviewed. 

The WSIS Prizes is the unique global platform to identify and showcase success stories in the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines and SDGs, creating an effective mechanism to evaluate projects and activities that leverage the power of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to advance sustainable development.  

The Hand-in-Hand Geospatial Platform was also nominated under Action Line C:11 on international and regional cooperation. This nomination and the DSP final Champion recognition highlight FAO''s commitment to fostering global development through digital initiatives in the food and agriculture sector.

FAO Director General, Qu Dongyu, will also be attending in presence several high level events during the WSIS+20 Forum, including the UN Leaders Dialogue on the progress and future of digital cooperation, and following his visit by participating in the AI for Good Global Summit, where AI innovators and problem owners learn, build and connect to help identify practical AI solutions to advance the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. AI for Good is organized by ITU in partnership with 40 UN Sister Agencies and co-convened with Switzerland.

‘Since its beginning, FAO has recognized WSIS crucial role in promoting global digital cooperation and collective action towards harnessing the transformative potential of ICTs for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the broader agenda of inclusive and sustainable development’ says Dejan Jakovljevic. Director of the Digital FAO and Agro-informatics Division and Chief Information Officer at FAO and organizer of FAO's Facilitation session on E agriculture. 

This event will highlight how FAO's major contributions to WSIS, strengthened through strategic partnerships, and including major digital initiatives, have helped raise awareness of the transformative potential of ICTs in agriculture over the last 20 years and catalyzed efforts to leverage digital innovation for food security, poverty reduction, and rural development worldwide.

With the participation of FAO leadership and management representatives, as well as some of the Organization's main partners, that will bring forward concrete examples of amplified use of digital tools, big data, artificial intelligence, through coherent action and enabling mechanisms for strengthening digital capabilities, FAO's session will build on the Vision for WSIS Beyond 2015, towards 2025 and mark progress towards also important UN led initiatives such as the Global Digital Compact and the Summit of the Future. 

It will showcase how the safe and ethical use of ICTs, including AI, is now more than ever a critical component for accelerating the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, leaving no one behind.

Register to WSIS+20 High Level Event here

Check the full agenda of FAO session  here

Check the speakers' bios  here 

The whole WSIS programme can be found here

Visit FAO's event webpage on WSIS website here

 

TO ATTEND REMOTELY FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW:
1. All participants are required to register to Virtual Participation here.
2. Upon registration, you will be asked to validate you email address to continue the registration process. An email will be sent to you to validate your email address.
3. Following the validation, you will receive an email with your Virtual Participation Registration Confirmation, including the link that directs you to the personal join session portal, that will show all the sessions.
4. You need to select the session that you would like to attend and can join by clicking the ‘’join’’ button which gives you access to the virtual room. The link will be open 30 mn before the session starts.