17 May 2011, 06:00 a.m.

 

Theme

The theme for the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) is “Better life in rural communities with ICTs”. This theme was adopted in 2009 and builds on the 2010 theme which was “Better city, better life with ICTs”, and aims to ensure that ICTs can contribute to better futures for rural populations.

The UN General Assembly declared that the WTISD should fall on 17 May after a summit held in 2005 in Tunis, commemorating the first International Telegraph Convention and the creation of the International Telecommunication Union.

Aim

The aim of the WTISD is to create more awareness of the economic and social opportunities created by using the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICT). It also addresses different ways to overcome the digital divide.

All over the world ICT’s applications are providing opportunities to meet the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals. In rural areas, ICT’s open prospects to generate income, combatting poverty, hunger, improving health and raising literacy levels.

Three billion people in Africa live in rural districts; this represents about 50% of the world’s population. They represent the poorer, less educated and more disadvantaged people. They are also the least connected in terms of ICT’s, preventing them from making use of the opportunities ICT’s offer, such as tools to improve:

·         governance

·         services such as community health care, safe drinking water and sanitation

 ·        education

·         food and shelter

·         maternal health to reduce child mortality

·         empowering women and the more vulnerable members of society

·         ensuring environmental sustainability.

The International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General, Dr Hamadoun I. Touré, declared:

 “Today, ICTs are the powerhouses of the global economy and offer real solutions towards generating sustainable economic growth and prosperity.”

Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary General, said of ICT's:

 “They power the world economy and have become the great enablers of modern society, helping people communicate across distances and cultural divides, facilitating trade and commerce, and providing access to critical resources such as healthcare and education.” 

Events

In Botswana, the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day will be commemorated in the countryside in a small village called Manxota – a step towards bridging digital divide between developed and the developing world, as well as community empowerment.

In Nigeria, the African Children Cyber Safety Initiative (ACCSI) of the African Information Security Association (AISA) will host a special session at the Free IT Career seminar to mark the WTISD.

To follow events for World Telecommunication and Information Society Day, the #-tag on twitter is # WTISD.