PANEL ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND DEVELOPMENT TO BE HELD IN GENEVA, 22 MAY

A multi-stakeholder event featuring a panel discussion aiming to demonstrate that information and communications technology (ICT), when applied strategically, is key to achieve the internationally agreed development goals will take place on 22 May at the United Nations Office in Geneva (Room XIX).

“The event seeks to maximize the effectiveness of initiatives seeking to meet the international development goals,” said Sarbuland Khan, Executive Director of the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development.  “Panellists will be able to share cutting-edge ideas, experiences, expertise and best practices, and find ways to collaborate.”

The event, “ICT for Development -- A follow-up to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)”, is organized in the framework of the tenth session of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development.  Leaders from Governments, international organizations, businesses, non-governmental organizations and academia, in partnership with the intergovernmental process of the Commission, will take the stage to debate achievements and challenges since the Tunis phase of WSIS, held in 2005, and what lies ahead for the development community.

Speakers include Jamaludin Jarjis, Minister of Information and Communication Technology of Malaysia; Gaoussou Drabo, Minister of Communication and New Technologies of Mali; Montassar Ouaili, Minister for Information Technology of Tunisia; Sanjiv Ahuja, Chairmanof the Board, Orange; Erkki Ormala, Vice-President of Technology and Policy, Nokia; John Gage, Chief Researcher and Vice-President, Sun Microsystems; Juan Rada, Senior Vice-President, Oracle Corporation; Walter Fust, Director-General, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; Hilary Bowker, Former CNN Anchor; Liu Chuang, Chinese Academy of Sciences; and Professor C.K. Prahalad, University of Michigan, United States.

Štefan Morávek, Chairperson of the Commission on Science and Technology for Development, and Guy Sebban, Secretary-General of the International Chamber of Commerce, will chair the event.

Two morning sessions and two afternoon sessions will examine innovative uses of information and communications technology that are helping to achieve individual development targets; ways to stimulate and support information and communications technology innovation in developing countries; information and communications technology innovations that are truly making “value at the bottom of the pyramid”; and partnerships that are making innovative uses of information and communications technology to deliver e-government services.

“Information and communications technologies have a central role to play in the quest for development, dignity and peace,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in February, adding that the Global Alliance was “well placed to promote the use of ICT in fighting poverty, illiteracy and disease, in protecting the environment and empowering women and girls”.

The event is organized by the Global Alliance for ICT and Development and the United Nations Commission on Science and Technology for Development.

For information, please visit www.un-gaid.org/en/node/577 or contact Ms. Enrica Mumura at the Alliance Secretariat, tel.:  +1 212 963 5913, e-mail:  murmura@un.org; or Rolando Gomez at the United Nations Information Service at Geneva, tel.:  +41 (0)22 917 23 26 or e-mail:  rgomez@unog.ch.

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For information media • not an official record