Archived Newsroom • Press Release |
|
World Summit on the Information Society Prize 2015 Winners
18 winners from around the world recognized for their part
in
building inclusive information society
Geneva, 26 May 2015 – ITU Secretary-General Houlin Zhao this
morning announced the 18 winners of the WSIS Prizes 2015 at the WSIS High-Level
Opening Segment, which was held at the headquarters of the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva.
The WSIS
Prizes 2015 contest provides a platform to identify and showcase success
stories across the
11 WSIS
Action Lines defined in the
Geneva Plan of Action.
In line with the inclusive, multistakeholder character of the
WSIS event, the prizes recognize the outstanding achievements of a wide range of
organizations in strengthening implementation of the vision and targets set by
the World Summit on the Information Society in 2003 (Phase
1) and 2005 (Phase 2).
“The WSIS Project Prizes provide an international platform to
identify and showcase the successful initiatives and best practices that could
be easily replicated by other countries and organizations, to further drive
momentum around ICTs as a catalyst for socio-economic development,” said ITU
Secretary-General Houlin Zhao.
This year’s WSIS Project Prize winners include government
departments, international organizations, private sector companies, NGOs and
academia. More than 300 projects were nominated for the 2015 contest, more than
twice the number of nominations in 2014, reflecting the prestigious nature of
the award and the growing importance of ICTs in national development strategies.
The awards are conferred through online voting involving over
100,000 stakeholders from around the world.
This year’s 18 winners are:
-
Action Line C1 The role
of government and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development
Winner: Young Innovations, Nepal
-
Action Line C2
Information and communication infrastructure
Winner: Ministry of Communications
and Transportation, Mexico
-
Action Line C3 Access to information and knowledge
Winner: Prime Minister’s
Office, Bangladesh
-
Action Line C4 Capacity
building
Winner: Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, United Arab Emirates
-
Action Line C5 Building
confidence & security in the use of ICTs
Winner: Ricerca sul Sistema Energetico
(RSE), Italy
-
Action Line C6 Enabling
environment
Winner: Ministry of Finance, Kazakhstan
-
Action Line C7
E-government
Winner: Majmaah University, Saudi Arabia
-
Action Line C7
E-business
Winner: Ministry of Economy and Finance, Uruguay
-
Action Line C7
E-learning
Winner: Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India
-
Action Line C7 E-health
Winner: FHI 360, United States of America
-
Action Line C7
E-employment
Winner: Ministry of Manpower, Oman
-
Action Line C7
E-environment
Winner: Central Agency for Information Technology, Kuwait
-
Action Line C7
E-agriculture
Winner: Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation,
Netherlands
-
Action Line C7 E-science
Winner: Iran University of Science and Technology, Iran
-
Action Line C8 Cultural
diversity & identity, linguistic diversity
Winner: South-West University ‘Neofit
Rilski’, Bulgaria
-
Action Line C9 Media
Winner: Radio Farm International, Canada
-
Action Line C10 Ethical
dimensions of the Information Society
Winner: Rwanda Media Commission, Rwanda
-
Action Line C11
International & regional cooperation
Winner: Economic Commission for Latin
America & the Caribbean
Detailed descriptions of winning projects are available
here.
Background
WSIS Project Prizes is an international contest developed in
response to requests from WSIS stakeholders to create an effective mechanism to
evaluate and recognize individuals, governments, civil society, local, regional
and international agencies, research institutions and private sector companies
for outstanding success in implementing development-oriented strategies that
leverage the power of ICTs. The WSIS Project Prizes contest is an integral part
of the WSIS stocktaking process (www.wsis.org/stocktaking).
The contest was held for the first time in 2012, and rapidly gained attention
and popularity within the ICT for Development (ICT4D) community.
Video interviews and photos of winners along with live and
archived event webcasts and transcripts of speeches can be found at http://groups.itu.int/stocktaking/WSISProjectPrizes.aspx#home
or on the main event website at www.wsis.org/forum.
Be part of the WSIS discussions and get the latest WSIS news
on Twitter at #WSIS.
For more information, please
contact:
Sarah Parkes
Chief, Media Relations and Public Information
|
|
About ITU...