The UIS is contributing to the monitoring of two WSIS ICT in education targets.
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was held in Geneva (2003) and Tunis (2005), bringing together governments, civil society and the business sector to discuss a broad range of subjects related to ICT for development.
Governments agreed on a set of commitments and actions to foster the establishment of an inclusive information society. In particular, ten targets were identified in the Geneva Plan of Action.
In order to transform the targets into measurable concepts, the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development was founded. It is an international, multi-stakeholder initiative to improve the availability and quality of ICT data and indicators, particularly in developing countries.
As part of its contribution to Partnership activities, the UIS conducted a pilot data collection amongst 25 developed and developing countries in 2009, the results of which were published in the Partnership’s Monitoring the WSIS Targets: A Mid-Term Review in 2010. Additional data were also collected through a joint Partnership questionnaire. The mid-term review marks a significant milestone in terms of data collection and dissemination for internationally-comparable statistics on ICT in education.
Following the pilot survey, the indicators used to track the two WSIS education targets were formalised in the Partnership’s Measuring the WSIS Targets: A Statistical Framework,which currently represents the standard for monitoring and benchmarking achievement.
In order to track progress in achieving the WSIS targets ten years after its launch, the Partnership has published WSIS Targets Review: Achievements, Challenges and the Way Forward.
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