From May 30 to June 3, International telecommunications union, ITU - Geneva
May 30 – June 3. OCCAM participated in the 2022 edition of the World Summit on Information Society 2022 Forum (final week) where the EWA-BELT Project (GA 862848) was brought as a concrete example of Best-practice in the field of ICTs for Developing Countries.
The World Summit on the Information Society Forum 2022 (WSIS) represents the world's largest annual gathering of the ‘ICT for development’ community. Co-organized by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD, in close collaboration with all WSIS Action Line Facilitators/Co-Facilitators, the WSIS Forum 2022 started on 15th March and went onwards in a virtual format with the final week being held physically with enhanced remote participation from 30 May to 3 June 2022 at the ITU Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, under the theme of ICTs for Well-Being, Inclusion and Resilience: WSIS Cooperation for Accelerating Progress on the SDGs. The final week represented a great opportunity to present the EWA-BELT Project and bring it to the highest tables to give it further recognition.
During this impressive week, Architect Saporito, president of OCCAM delivered two
speeches at the High-level policy interaction sessions and dialogues. The first intervention was held during the “High-level policy session number 11: Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content/Ethical Dimensions of Information and Knowledge Societies/Media/ICTs and Gender Mainstreaming” where issues concerning the internet, online media, global ethical ICT standards and gender equality were discussed. The panelists highlighted how a close collaboration is of the utmost importance to filling the current gap. On this matter, OCCAM supports the promotion of e-services for all, such as telemedicine, e-learning, e-governance and e-agriculture so to promote a digital welfare for all. The EWA-BELT Project was brought to the table to exemplify how OCCAM and the entire consortium are working to achieve such ambitious objectives. The second contribution was during the “High level dialogue: ICTs for Developing countries and LDCs”. On the occasion, President Saporito underlined how LDCs still suffer from a lack of connectivity, especially as regards to rural areas, which results in the impossibility of taking advantage of the e-services that the digital revolution makes available to governments, companies, NGOs, international organizations and above all local authorities. One solution the Observatory on Digital Communication OCCAM has proposed is the exploitation of state broadband connection bands. Recognizing their
role in the security fields, such connectivity tools must be adapted and exploited by local (rural) communities to enhance social development programs and progress, thus bridging any connectivity, economic and social gaps to promote basic development. In addition, the EWA-BELT Project was proposed as an example of best-practice where a top-down approach of companies and international organizations must necessarily be accompanied and supported by a bottom-up methodology, providing basic e-services and training paths so to make autogenous development processes productive and activating courses of sharing knowledge in neighboring communities. As such, not only more efficient connectivity is made available and accessible, both on the web and on mobile platforms, but it is also possible to target the use of digital tools in key sectors of indigenous rural communities in LDCs for a sustainable, fairer and more inclusive development.