The speaker line-up has been finalised for this year’s IFIP WITFOR (World IT Forum) event in Costa Rica, with a clear alignment between the selected topics and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
To be held in San Jose, Costa Rica from 12-14 September, WITFOR 2016 has taken the theme “ICT for Promoting Human Development and Protecting the Environment”.
It will bring together hundreds of senior policy-makers, ICT experts, representatives of NGOs and GOs, researchers and private sector organizations to progress the SDGs and apply technology to solve the biggest challenges confronting developing nations.
In addition to an impressive line-up of keynotes from:
- Chrisanthi Avgerou, Professor of Information Systems at the London School of Economics and Political Science;
- Alicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC);
- Yaseen Khan, a medical doctor and social entrepreneur who co-founded the Open Medicine Project;
- Erick Mata, Associate Professor at the School of Computer Science of the Costa Rica Institute of Technology (ITCR); and
- Malcolm Johnson, ITU Deputy Secretary-General,
The WITFOR 2016 Program Committee has accepted 24 papers grouped into seven categories:
- Environment & Sustainability,
- Gender,
- Education,
- E-Government & Smart Cities,
- Health,
- Economic Development, and
- Digital Equity.
Topics range from strategies for empowering women, the role of technology in facilitating government accountability, and progress towards digital equity, to applications of e-commerce in the coffee industry, and the use of video games to enhance awareness of malaria and dengue fever.
For more information about WITFOR 2016 or to register to attend, visit http://www.witfor2016.org
