Thursday 7 April 2016: IFIP, the global professional association for ICT, has been honoured by the ITU with a WSIS Champion Award for its initiative in establishing the Global Industry Council to help drive standards in ICT professionalism and add social value for communities.

The award, which was announced this week in the lead up to next month’s WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society) Forum 2016 in Geneva, recognises organisations which positively impact the WSIS Action Lines and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The Global Industry Council (GIC) was established by IP3, IFIP’s International Professional Practice Partnership, as a forum through which ICT employers and educators can engage with IP3 and influence the development of the profession around the world.

GIC Directors are specially nominated and invited to serve within the UN-rooted body as internationally recognised luminary executives, thought leaders, and visionaries and for their strong history of providing substantive contributions to global business, industry, society, education, and governments. Due to the strong contributions of GIC Directors, the Council was formally incorporated by unanimous vote into the statutes and bylaws of IFIP at the General Assembly in October 2015 led by IFIP President, Leon Strous.

IFIP IP3’s initiative to create the GIC was recognised by ITU under its “Ethical Dimensions of the Information Society” category.

The award will be formally presented to GIC Founding Chair and IFIP IP3 Vice-Chair, Stephen Ibaraki, at a special ceremony during the WSIS Forum. In attendance will be Mr Strous (Netherlands) as well as IP3 Board Chair, Brenda Aynsley, OAM (Australia) and Moira de Roche, Deputy Chair IP3 (South Africa) along with local IP3 Board member, Professor Raymond Morel, who is also the national Swiss representative to IFIP.

Mr Ibaraki said the GIC provides a valuable function not only for IFIP and IP3, but also for senior ICT professionals wanting to impact their sector and the world. The impact to SDGs were outlined when Ibaraki was invited to speak at the UN/ITU GA WSIS review in July, October and December 2015.

“In addition to keeping IFIP and IP3 connected to the ICT coalface through its active members, the GIC provides a neutral forum for ICT leaders from across the industry to discuss issues and solutions of interest to major global organisations.
“We actively promote global standards for ICT professionalism, and enable our members to play a role in assisting developing nations by supporting the development of their ICT capability,” he said.

The WSIS Forum 2016 represents the world’s largest annual gathering of the ‘ICT for development’ community, bringing together a wide range of stakeholders from around the globe to discuss and coordinate activities and partnerships to advance development goals.

Jointly organised by ITU, UNESCO, UNDP and UNCTAD, in close collaboration with all WSIS Action Line Facilitators/Co-Facilitators, the Forum has proven to be an efficient mechanism to coordinate multi-stakeholder implementation activities, information exchange, creation of knowledge, sharing of best practices and continues to provide assistance in developing multi-stakeholder and public/private partnerships to advance development goals.

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About IP3
The International Professional Practice Partnership (IP3), a project of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), and is leading the development of the global IT profession by providing a platform that will help shape and implement relevant policies to foster professionalism in IT worldwide. Our mission is to establish a global partnership that will strengthen the IT profession and contribute to the development of strong international economies by: defining international standards of professionalism in IT; creating an infrastructure that will encourage and support the development of both IT practitioners and employer organizations, and give recognition to those who meet and maintain the required standards for knowledge, experience, competence and integrity. To carry out this mission, IP3 works closely with member bodies and partners who share our commitment to creating a sound global IT profession. www.ipthree.org

About IFIP
IFIP, the International Federation for Information Processing, is the global professional federation of societies and associations for people working in Information and Communications Technologies and Sciences. Established under the auspices of UNESCO in 1960 and recognised by the United Nations, IFIP represents ICT professional associations from more than 50 countries and regions with a total membership of over half a million. It also brings together more than 3,500 scientists from industry and academia, organising them into over 100 Working Groups and 13 Technical Committees to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing. Based in Austria, IFIP organises and supports over 100 conferences each year, fostering the distribution of research and knowledge to academics and industry practitioners alike.

Website: http://ifip.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ifipnews
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ifip—international-federation-for-information-processing

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