Digital Innovation for Sustainable Development
17 May is World Telecommunication & Information Society Day
Building a sustainable future demands innovative thinking and action, especially in the digital world.
WTISD 2024 is a chance to explore how digital innovation can help connect everyone and unlock sustainable prosperity for all.
Innovative tech can help tackle the world’s most pressing challenges, from fighting climate change to eliminating hunger and poverty. In fact, digital technologies can help achieve 70% of targets under the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. Yet glaring digital gaps hinder innovation in many parts of the world. The lack of policies, investment, and digital skills leaves many countries struggling to keep up in the fast-changing digital landscape.
The whole world needs digital innovation. Together, we can make it happen.
Celebrated every year on 17 May, World Telecommunication and Information Society Day (WTISD) marks the founding of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – the United Nations agency for digital technologies.
Be part of the celebration!
Join us for WTISD 2024 with events in different time zones around the globe.
A virtual live-streamed hour from the TV Studio at ITU Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, will bring together experts and innovators for a chat about digital impact.
You, too, can be part of the conversation on digital innovation for sustainable development.
World Telecommunication Day has been celebrated annually on 17 May since 1969, marking the founding of ITU and the signing of the first International Telegraph Convention in 1865.
It was instituted by the Plenipotentiary Conference in Malaga-Torremolinos in 1973.
In November 2005, the World Summit on the Information Society called upon the UN General Assembly to declare 17 May as World Information Society Day to focus on the importance of ICT and the wide range of issues related to the Information Society raised by WSIS.
The General Assembly adopted a resolution (A/RES/60/252) in March 2006 stipulating that World Information Society Day shall be celebrated every year on 17 May.
In November 2006, the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Antalya, Turkey, decided to celebrate both events on 17 May as:
World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.