 Hello and welcome to the WISIS Forum 2019. As you're aware, the WISIS process is bound by the framework of 11 WISIS Action Lines. And we are joined today by our UN colleagues who are facilitating these different UN Action Lines. I'd like to start by Deniz, who's from UN Dessa. And they facilitate WISIS Action Lines C1, C11, and Action 9, C7 on e-governance. Deniz, in line with the high level political forum theme for 2019 about empowering people, about partnerships, about collaborations, what are the key trends that you would like to share in this Action Line? Thank you, Gitanjali. So three things very quickly. One thing that's new is Secretary General's technology on promotion of new technologies. So that's taking a lot of our time. Second about e-government, United Nations e-government survey and how e-government can include citizens for inclusion. So that's the second one. Third one, high level panel on digital cooperation. That's also another initiative from SG and also in line with Internet Governance Forum, which is under C11 partnership, which will be discussing digital inclusion this year in Berlin in November. Thank you very much, Deniz. Digital inclusion and partnership, of course, comes across as one of the main things of the WISIS Forum and the WISIS process. I have here with me Halima, who is the Action Line facilitator for C4 Capacity Building. We've spoken about digital skills, empowerment, education, all through the WISIS Forum. And we'd like to ask Halima on what are the plans for this Action Lines, what is being done for implementation at the international level, regional and national levels. Thank you, Jutan Jali. This year we are focusing on the use of ICTs in education specifically in the area of capacity building. And we are doing this because we have had a lot of discussions with members of the academia who have brought about opportunities and challenges that they are facing in using ICTs in the field of education. And as you know, ICTs are becoming diverse, they are becoming complex, but at the same time, they are becoming quite cheap and accessible, making them a mode of knowledge exchange and training that can be used to reach the majority of populations. And by reaching the majority of populations, they are promoting inclusiveness and enhancing equality. So basically we are focusing on this and we are also looking at expanding our reach and focusing a little bit more at the grassroots, you know, to focus our capacity building activities on basic digital skills development. Thank you very much, Halema. Reaching out to the last mile, that is one of the main objectives of the WISIS process. And the highest participation at the WISIS forum is actually from civil society. We are listening to their stories and we are listening to what's happening right at the grassroots here at the WISIS forum. We have with us here today also Mr. Esmal Shah. He will talk about the region of Asia Pacific and what's happening in the region with respect to empowering people through use of ICTs. So Asia Pacific, as you know, is very dynamic and diverse and they have strong emphasis on the use of ICT for everything that they do, agriculture, health, education. The way we work there is through the regional initiatives and by partnering with the UN agencies like FAO, World Health Organization and other UN agencies and local agencies like UNScap and APT and also with the member states very closely to achieve these objectives using ICTs. Thank you Esmal. Of course, it's all about collaboration between UN agencies and between the different WISIS stakeholders. More than 300,000 WISIS stakeholders are following us remotely during these five days of the WISIS forum. We have here with us Sasha Rubel. She's representing UNESCO that moderates several WISIS action lines. And Sasha, what is the role and what are the plans of your respective action lines with reference to the theme of the HLPF, that is of empowering people and promoting inclusiveness? Thank you to Tanjini. UNESCO facilitates six of the WISIS action lines. First action line C3 is a concerns access to information and knowledge. And for us, this is fundamental as it concerns ensuring inclusive knowledge societies, is ensuring first and foremost access to information as a fundamental right. And one of the things that we place an enormous emphasis on is ensuring also open access to scientific information as well as educational information. And this is in the framework of our work on action line C7 on e-learning and e-science. We also lead action line C8 dedicated to cultural diversity, linguistic diversity and local content. And this year, 2019 is the international year of indigenous languages which UNESCO lead facilitates. And so we are looking specifically at the intersection of preserving and promoting indigenous languages, particularly in the online environment to ensure inclusiveness going forward and to meet the SDGs. We also lead facilitate action line C9 dedicated to media. And UNESCO currently is specifically looking at the impact of emerging technologies and artificial intelligence as it concerns freedom of expression and journalistic practice. We've had several sessions in the framework of this forum dedicated to this issue as well as to our work on action line C10 which looks at the ethical dimensions on the information society. And concretely, we are undertaking in global consultation with member states and other international organizations a survey as it concerns the future development of an ethical and human centered AI. So we are looking forward to working with the ITU and other international and regional organizations as well as the private sector and different multi-stakeholder groups moving this agenda forward to make sure that we develop an ethical and human centered AI in support of information and knowledge societies. Thank you very much, Sasha. During this week, we also had some displays of virtual reality technologies and how they can be used to actually preserve the languages that are disappearing. So I do hope that you all had the chance to explore that virtual reality space. We also have here with us today, Mr. Ibrahim Eladha. He is the regional director of the Arab region. And Ibrahim, could you please share with us some of the initiatives that have been taking place at the regional level with respect to the implementation of the VISSIS action lines. As you can see, the regional, the Arab states are so active in the VISSIS forum and the implementation of the VISSIS action lines. Thanks very much, Angelique. As you had mentioned, we have a lot of member countries who are actively working with the VISSIS action lines. And I just referred back to Sasha's as well. The work that we do with UNESCO on digital inclusiveness and digital weeks and so on. We also work with UNSQA. We recently had a meeting between the ITU regional office and the regional development forum, back to back to the regional forum on VISSIS and SDGs. And all our activities that we're concentrating on in relation to, for example, issues of inclusiveness, cybersecurity, capacity building, as my colleagues has mentioned, these are all work together to ensure that we have a collaborative work. We work with WHO, as I said, with UNESCO. And we're very glad that we had excellent experience in trying to assist member states in achieving the action lines and also achieving the SDGs for that. And we're delighted to be here and share all this experience. Thank you. Thank you, Abraham. You also concluded a very successful regional development forum in collaboration with ESQUA last week. So congratulations for that. I'd like to move on to our next panelist and speaker. Sir, could you please share some of the activities you are doing with respect to the implementation of the VISSIS Action Line? Yes, WMO has worked over the past long period of time since the 1800s, actually, with ICT in a sense, to develop methodologies for predicting the atmosphere and warning people of impending losses and possible danger. And that is what we are doing right now. Over the past years, we've been stepping it up. So working to empower everybody with early warning services using modern ICT technologies. Thank you, WMO. WMO facilitates the Action Line on E-Environment along with several other UN agencies like UNEP, the Basel Convention, and of course ITU as well. Thank you very much for joining us today. You heard about different VISSIS Action Lines, their implementation at the regional level, and the impact that they are having on people to empower them and to make their lives more inclusive. Thank you very much.