Highlights, Announcements, and Key Outcomes

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Ahead of the United Nations General Assembly’s twenty-year review of WSIS, the WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event served as a platform for multistakeholder exchanges and a catalyst for action. It took stock of achievements, key trends, and challenges since the 2003 Geneva Plan of Action. This event was an occasion for the international community to assess opportunities for global digital cooperation and to join forces towards a forward-looking, reinvigorated shared vision, informing the UN Summit of the Future.

The WSIS+20 High-Level Event 2024 was co-hosted by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the Swiss Confederation, and co-organized with UNESCO, UNDP, and UNCTAD. The Event took place from 27 to 31 May 2024 in Geneva, Switzerland. The five-day high-level event’s sessions took place from Monday to Wednesday at the International Conference Centre Geneva (CICG), and on Thursday and Friday, the sessions hosted at the ITU Headquarters.

The Event gathered over 4,000 participants onsite and online, including nearly 80 ministers, deputies, and heads of regulatory authorities. With representation from 160 countries, the Event featured more than 500 high-level participants engaging in around 200 sessions with over 100 speakers.

The five-day event brought together multi-stakeholder participants, including government, the private sector, academia, the technical community, and civil society. It covered a wide range of topics, including emerging technologies, WSIS+20, digital inclusion, digital governance processes, the Global Digital Compact, the Summit of the Future, digital health, universal connectivity, sustainable digital transformation, cybersecurity, digital public infrastructure, and many more.

The WSIS+20 High-Level Event 2024 was chaired by H.E. Mr. Albert Rösti, Federal Councillor, Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy, and Communications (DETEC), Switzerland. In the closing ceremony, the Chair of the WSIS+20 Forum presented the Chair's Summary, encapsulated the discussions from the Chair's perspective, highlighting key insights and future directions emerging from the Event.

Highlights

• UN Secretary-General’s Message: António Guterres shared a video message on the occasion, available here.

• UN Leaders Spotlight on WSIS: Contributions in a video format by the Heads of UN Agencies: UN Leaders Spotlight on WSIS - YouTube

  1. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

  2. ILO Director-General Gilbert F. Houngbo

  3. FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu

  4. IOM Director General Amy Pope

  5. WIPO Director General Daren Tang

  6. UNECA Executive Secretary Claver Gatete

  7. UNITAR Executive Director Nikhil Seth

  8. UNIDO Director-General Gred Müller

  9. UNECE Executive Secretary Tatiana Molcean

  10. UN ESCAP Executive Secretary Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana

  11. UNDESA Under-Secretary-General Li Junhua

  12. UNJSPF Chief Executive of Pension Administration Rosemarie

  13. UNU Rector Tshilidzi Marwala

• 40+ exhibition spaces showcasing digital projects and initiatives for sustainable development. This year's event included the debut of the UN SG Zone, with 10 UN agencies highlighting their digital efforts towards the 2030 Agenda. The exhibition also featured WSIS Partners booths and special showcases of emerging technologies like VR and AI.

• The United Nations Group on the Information Society (UNGIS) reiterated its commitment to the WSIS process and the implementation of WSIS Action Lines, emphasizing the importance of aligning the WSIS and SDG processes. For the term 2024-2025, UNESCO has assumed the Chair of UNGIS, taking over from ITU and UNDP as co-chairs (2023-2024). The Vice-Chairs for this term are ITU, UNDP, UNCTAD, and ECLAC. UNGIS stands ready to be further leveraged for the good of the UN system, aiming to enhance coherence, coordination, and collaboration within the system, particularly in support of the Global Digital Compact follow-up. UNGIS members discussed an ambitious workplan on (i) measuring the environmental impact of digital technologies, particularly AI; (ii) enhancing systematic gender equality mainstreaming across members’ digital workstreams, and (iii) building the digital transformation capacities of governments on topics covered by UNGIS members towards a joint WSIS Conference – UNGIS meeting in February 2025. Building a joint database is another project to facilitate creating synergies and avoiding duplication. UNGIS reaffirms its unwavering commitment to the upcoming WSIS+20 review, ensuring that global efforts continue to evolve and adapt for a digitally inclusive and sustainable future.

• The announcement of the WSIS Prizes 2024, celebrated 18 winners and 72 champions, recognized for their efforts in implementing WSIS Action Lines and advancing the SDGs. The full list of winners and champions, are available here.

• WSIS Special Prizes were also awarded:

  1. WSIS Healthy Ageing Innovation Prize 2024. Winner: Stitch, combats loneliness among older adults through community-building activities, enhancing their quality of life.

  2. WSIS Digital Service Design Prize 2024. Winner: National Information Technology Authority (NITA), Uganda and their project to UGPass.

• Presentation of three best projects of the Women in GovTech Challenge.

• Ministerial Roundtable: The Ministers concluded as follows:

  1. The interventions shared underscore a collective commitment to harnessing ICT for socio-economic advancement, increasing inclusivity, and ensuring that the digital transformation benefits everyone.

  2. The WSIS Principles and Action Lines continue to serve as a time-tested reference for global digital discussions.

  3. The outcomes of the WSIS, namely, the Geneva Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action along with the Tunis Commitment and Tunis Agenda for the Information Society, adopted by the Heads of States and Government, remain the foundation for global digital policies and cooperation. They support our shared vision of a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented information and knowledge societies that fully respect and uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

  4. The upcoming WSIS+20 review offers a prime opportunity for evolving the WSIS Outcomes to encompass the latest advancements moving forward, integrating new technologies such as AI, and ensuring that the WSIS continues to support inclusive global digital governance and digital development.

  5. The WSIS Forum has been the time-tested multistakeholder platform for deliberations on digital development policies, exchanging best practices, and fostering partnerships.

  6. The WSIS should be leveraged for the follow-up and implementation of the Global Digital Compact (GDC). Its established Principles and Action Lines remain central in global digital discussions, as clearly demonstrated in recent declarations.

• The Academic Roundtable gathered over 20 technology and policy academic experts to strengthen collaboration on emerging trends. Scientific evidence is crucial for guiding policy making.

• Wellness Sessions: Permanent Mission of India organized yoga and mindfulness sessions for participants.

• Hosted Network of Women Ministers and Leaders in ICT, joined by over 100 participants sharing views on closing the gender digital divide and empowering more women to lead, innovate, and inspire.

Key Figures

• Featured nearly 200 sessions, including high-level plenary sessions, interactive sessions, knowledge cafes, exhibitions, WSIS Prizes and Special Prizes ceremonies, and a ministerial roundtable.

• Brought together 4,000+ participants (3,000 physical and 1,000 remote) from 160 countries

• 500 High-Levels, including CEOs, Ministers, Deputies, Heads of Organisations, Ambassadors, etc.

• 80+ Ministers and Deputies, Heads of Regulatory Authorities.

• Over 100 speakers and experts who shared their insights on various aspects of the digital landscape.

• Gender participation: 57% male, 43% female.

• 650+ participants on LinkedIn networking tool.

Announcements

• #WSIS was among the top 3 trending topics in Switzerland.

• ITU’s Partner2Connect surpassed half of its USD 100 billion goal for universal and meaningful connectivity.

• ITU — in collaboration with the OpenWallet Foundation and the support of the Swiss Government — announced their intent to launch the OpenWallet Forum, to help drive multi-stakeholder collaboration and discussions on interoperable digital wallets. The OpenWallet Forum would empower government agencies, private sector organizations, and other stakeholders to make digital wallet services more accessible, interoperable and contribute to the development of the digital public infrastructure, especially in developing countries.

• Launched WSIS Stocktaking Report 2024 and WSIS Stocktaking Success Stories 2024.

• Announcement of the DPI Summit on October 2024 in Egypt, bringing the Global DPI Ecosystem to share best practices.

• Launched of the GovStack Knowledge & eLearning Hub - GovStack Partners ITU, Estonia, GIZ Germany

  • Launched of seven eLearning self-peace courses on GovStack Building Blocks

  • Launched of the GovStack Architects Training Program - Applications are open until July 31st

WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event 2024 Sponsors

The success of the WSIS+20 Forum High-Level Event 2024 was made possible through the commitment and generous support of various partners:

• Platinum Partner: United Arab Emirates

• Gold Plus Partner: Saudi Arabia

• Gold Partner: Digital Cooperation Organisation

• Partners for Specific Activities: Japan, Huawei, IEEE

• Contributing Partners: Rwanda, Switzerland, United Kingdom, EY, ICANN, Internet Society, WHO

• Supporting Partners: Wallonia-Brussels in Geneva, Permanent Mission of Belgium to the UN, Global Coalition on Aging, IFIP

All stakeholders are invited to participate and contribute actively to the WSIS Forum 2025, which will be branded as WSIS+20 High-Level Event 2025, scheduled to take place from 7 to 11 July 2025 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Outcome Documents

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Publications

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Statements

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Prize Winners

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Press — Key mentions

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