- 21/03/2018
- Categories: Commentaries, Press Release
Together with other eleven initiatives from Indonesia, Center for Digital Society (CfDS) UGM has the honor to participate World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) Forum 2018 in Geneva, Switzerland on 18-23 March 2018.
This year, WSIS Forum focuses on “Leveraging ICTs to Build Information and Knowledge Societies for Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).” This event is co-organized by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) along with United Nations’ bodies. WSIS Forums aims to be the appreciation platform for individuals, NGOs, regional/national/international organizations, private and governmental institutions which have been contributed in the field of community development based on ICT utilization to achieve the target listed in SDGs by the year of 2030.
WSIS Forum 2018 consists of various sessions that invite speakers and IT for development experts. Furthermore, the announcement of WSIS Prize Winners was also held at the event on 20 March 2018.
There are seventeen initiatives from Indonesia nominated for WSIS Prize 2018. After open public voting phase which was held online until 18 February and additional selection process by UN experts, there are one Winner and four Champions chosen in each category.
CfDS UGM is one of the twelve initiatives from Indonesia managed to enter as finalists in eight different categories. CfDS UGM is honored to attend this event as one of the Champion in Category 1: “The role of government and all stakeholders” with a project titled “Knowledge building toward Indonesian Digital Society.”
In the end, an initiative from Indonesia titled “Government Portal fro Viral-able Public Policy Communication” by IndonesiaBaik.id with support from Ministry of Communication and Informatics comes away as the winner in Category 16: “Media.”
Houlin Zhao, ITU Secretary-General, congratulated all Winners and Champions before ending the session.
“We would like to give the highest appreciation to all the Champions and Winners, for your continuous support in the development of ICT in your respective fields and to the world. As what the Secretary-General of United Nations, Mr. Guterres mentioned, ICT is a very powerful tool to achieve all SDGs goals. So you are all already standing for the future of the global development agenda.”
CfDS UGM representative, Viyasa Rahyaputra, said that attending WSIS Forum 2018 is an honor and also a chance for CfDS and Indonesia.
“Center for Digital Society has concerns regarding the development of IT which has a huge contribution towards global development. With WSIS Forum, we hope the whole society will be more eager to contribute to ensuring the achievement of all SDGs.”
CfDS UGM would like to send appreciation to all supports given to us during WSIS Prize 2018. CfDS UGM will continue to commit to contributing to IT-based global development in the future.
