 A warm welcome to all WISIS stakeholders from all over the world and special greetings from the WISIS Forum 2015. I am Gitanjali Shah, Policy Analyst WISIS working at the International Telecommunications Union. As you all know, this is a very special year as it is the 10-year anniversary review for the WISIS process and also the review of the Millennium Development Goals and the Annunciation of the Sustainable Development Goals. After receiving several inputs from WISIS stakeholders on the lack of reflection of ICTs in the Sustainable Development Goals, we as UN Action Line facilitators embarked on an exercise to demonstrate a direct linkage of the action lines, the WISIS action lines and the Sustainable Development Goals. The result of this exercise that was coordinated by the ITU is in the form of an easy-to-read matrix which is available to all the stakeholders on the website, www.WISIS.org slash SDGs. While referring to the WISIS SDG matrix, the Secretary-General of the ITU, Mr. Haulin Zhao said, and I quote, ITU was pleased to coordinate this effort and I hope that the matrix will serve as an easy reference for all stakeholders engaged in shaping the future of both the SDGs and the WISIS process beyond 2015. Each WISIS action line is facilitated by a United Nations agency according to their respective mandates. The matrix maps the WISIS action lines with the SDGs and also provides a rationale for each. We have with us today action line facilitators from UN agencies. I will start with Sophie Trinan. Hello Sophie. How do you think action line e-agriculture contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals? As you know, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is the facilitator and when we're talking about agriculture it's not only agriculture but it's also forestry, fishery and in agriculture it's not only plants it's also livestock so it's quite vast and e-agriculture in the last 10 years has evolved really a lot. If in the last 10 years we had some difficulties in finding specific projects nowadays almost all projects of ICTs included in what they are doing and so now it's more complicated to see which one we are going to choose. So indeed when you look at agriculture and ICTs you see that e-agriculture is really related to the SDGs and specifically the SDG number two which is to end hunger to actually improve food security and nutrition and also to have sustainable agriculture. This is really clearly the mandate of FAO and this is how we can actually contribute to the SDGs it's focusing on this but there are also of course other action lines that we can refer to. Among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, Action Line e-agriculture fits best with some goals which ones are those and why? So indeed the one that where we fit best is goal number two which is the one that FAO is actually coordinating it's end hunger achieve food security and improve nutrition promote sustainable agriculture but agriculture is not only agriculture is also forestry, fishery and when we are talking about food security we are also talking about consumers but also small oldest farmers so this will have also a link to what goals link to health, goals that are going to be linked to consumers, goals that are going to be linked to water and sanitation, to also partnerships whether it's a public-private partnership or involving the civil society and also the goal which is related to gender equality and empowerment of women and girls which is a goal number five because this should be mainstream in whatever any agency is doing. So if you look at the matrix you will see that we are in many of the SDGs so we will have to focus on where we can really make a difference and this is what we will try to do. Thank you very much Sophie. We now move to Action Line facilitator of C4 Mike Nexley and he's working at the International Telecommunications Union welcome Mike. Capacity Building Action Line C4 is very cross-cutting it contributes to most of the sustainable development goals could you elaborate why? Thank you Gitanjali in fact I would I would go on to say that it contributes to all of the 17 SDGs and this is quite normal because capacity building is actually cross-cutting everything that we do rests on capacity building. If you look at all the other SDGs some of them are involved in formulating the right policy frameworks in order to achieve the desired SDG and for those right policy frameworks to be put in place you need people to be equipped with the knowledge and the skills with which to do that and if you look at ICT applications for example for people to be able to leverage the benefits of those ICT applications they need to know how to use those ICT tools so really throughout the entire spectrum from infrastructure to regulation to use of ICTs capacity building runs through as a threat. Thank you. Can you highlight one or two specific goals where Action Line C4 has a specific and particular role to play? Like I said at the beginning all the 17 SDGs capacity building is a role to play but if I were to pick out two as you say I would probably go for goal four which is ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities. As you know since ICTs came on board people don't have to go to a classroom to learn right people can actually learn on their mobiles people can learn on their tablets people can learn in various ways they can even we have information put on a USB stick so all these ICT tools that are bringing education away from the brick and mortar building onto their laptops so I think that has actually had far-reaching consequences to people for example those who did not have banking services now can actually have been banking services right on their laptops so that's one SDG I think greatly impacted upon. The other one I would put it as a goal 16 which is promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development provide access to justice for all and build effective accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. You know about M government you know about E government you know about M commerce in other words all these benefits are reaching almost everybody who was unable to have them so the challenge right now is actually to extend the range to more people included in these ICT services that are becoming available. Thank you Mike the Action Line facilitator of C4 ITU thank you very much indeed. Hello Sophie. Sophie Maddens is the Action Line facilitator for C6 which is enabling environment and ITU is the sole facilitator for this Action Line. Welcome Sophie. My first question to you would be an enabling environment is absolutely crucial for the implementation of this Action Lines to promote digital inclusion and socioeconomic empowerment. How can Action Line C6 contribute to the implementation of the sustainable development goals? Thank you Kit Anjali and good morning to you. Yes indeed we are the facilitator for Action Line C6 the enabling environment. The enabling environment is really that the framework that creates the trust the framework that will allow the further transformation of our world. Today ICTs affect our world they affect everything we do they affect how we can live how we can carry out agriculture have E health have E government a strong resilient strong internet and strong resilient strong communications infrastructure allows us to address all these SDGs and like Mike I want to go through some of the SDGs. ICTs can help poverty they can help help relieve poverty they can help get better health services they can help get a better quality education promote economic development make citizens safe but for that for that resilient reliable infrastructure and for the use of the services it's important to have the trust in those services to get the next billion online we have to create and keep that trust and that's where the enabling environment comes in we can't kill the golden goose we have to create that environment that promotes innovation that promotes investment that promotes trust that allows affordable accessible available communications we have to think of the marginalized people and for that enabling environment policies and regulations that think about the marginalized people the youth the women people with specific needs we need to incorporate that in our regulatory and policy environments as well so policy makers and regulators when crafting an enabling environment and looking at that environment on how to promote agriculture and get the affordable accessible ICTs so that agriculture can benefit from them need to think of that and one last thing that I think is very key to this as well is have a holistic approach don't just think about how can I get computers to schools don't just think about how can I get communications infrastructures to the rural areas but also think how can I work with my ministry of agriculture work with my ministry of education so that the communities know how to leverage the use of these ICTs and I look at my colleague Mike as well have capacity building inform educate so that the that the that golden opportunity of ICTs can be used across all the SDGs how can the SDGs leverage from the transformational power of ICTs and broadband and what role does Action Line C6 play that okay so I'll make it a little bit personal here I am who I am and I do what I do because of the transformational power of ICTs I'm a mother I'm a professional I'm a wife I'm a sister I'm a friend I'm an entrepreneur I'm a I'm a consumer so ICTs have made that available for me having grown up in an age where ICTs were not available all over the world we've seen what a transformational role it has played we've seen how it's changed the world we've seen that by having strong broadband infrastructure children in school that before would struggle fight over one book for the whole school the whole village now with a simple kindle can have access to the Dickens and the Moliers and all the literature of the world agricultural people in the agricultural communities can have access to prices the latest prices where the need is for their goods and services maternal health us as mothers we know that it's very important to know about the information about the health of your baby about what you can do to maintain the health of your baby there are many mothers out there that don't have access to that to that information today and that's where the transformational power of ICTs come in also the future there are many out there in the in the unconnected the billions of unconnected that can change our world we have to create that enabling environment so that they can have the opportunity to create the future to be the next suckerbergs and they're out there in places that today we don't know and then they can create differences to our life that have economic and social impact on the world we live in today so thank you very much indeed Sophie uh hello carolina how do ICTs impact your everyday life thank you jitangeli and good morning well i mean uh it's quite evident how ICTs are changing everyday life most of all of young people and we are always with our we are a cell phone and everywhere in the world is becoming huge but most of all if i must say one big change that is happening and that young people are experiencing and they will experience more even in the future is that they're completely changing the the conception of space and time so uh it's it's really creating one only big community and i i mean i can talk and work in new york easily from my laptop and this is very important most of all for the youth in the developing countries if you think about it and to give an example the the easiest example i can think of is youth unemployment we talk about it a lot we hear about it a lot and i believe ICTs can really contribute to that because now it's it's much easier to look for jobs and even to work from everywhere and everywhere and this is very enabling to to young people looking for jobs and as i said we are not in i'm not anymore an italian girl looking for a job i part of this word i can look for jobs everywhere in the world and i believe ICTs are enabling me to do that thank you carolina hello jenki as a young woman uh how do you feel ICTs empower you in your everyday life okay hello Gitanjali uh i think ICTs are really like important these days uh not only for our professional life but also for our daily life uh for professional life for example colleagues can exchange documents and ideas using some sort of platform and this is really environmental friendly which is I think matches with the SDGE of the united nations and for like everyday life I think young people nowadays are indispensable for the cell phones because we communicate with our friends using the social medias we cannot live without these ICTs and ICTs really make life easier it's shorten the distance between people uh for example uh I know many of us like we go abroad to study and it's really important to use ICTs to communicate with your parents as like if we were like never never been away from each other so ICTs really help our daily life and um sorry I forgot what I should say um and that was that was really useful yes of course ICTs have become indispensable for us today so thank you very much thank you for being a part of this discussion and we will continue with the other action line facilitators in the round two thank you very much