Application Deadline: 2 January 2018 (Deadline for last submission: 23:00 Geneva time)
WSIS Prizes is a unique international contest developed in response to requests from the WSIS stakeholders to create an effective mechanism to evaluate and recognize individuals, governments, civil society, local, regional and international agencies, research institutions and private-sector companies for outstanding success in implementing development oriented strategies that leverage the power of ICTs as an enabler of the development. The WSIS Prizes contest is an integral part of the WSIS stocktaking process; set up in 2004 to assist WSIS implementation and follow-up. The contest was held for the first time in 2012, and rapidly gained attention and popularity within the ICT for Development (ICT4D) community.
Building upon the outcomes of the United Nations General Assembly Overall Review on WSIS (Res. A/70/125) as well as the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Res. A/70/1), the WSIS Prizes, facilitated by ITU in coordination with all WSIS stakeholders, the WSIS Prizes 2018 contest, while continuing to highlight progress made towards achieving the WSIS goals, will also continue to reflect to which of the newly proposed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) the submitted projects are mostly linked to.
All stakeholders are urged to encourage their networks to join the WSIS Prizes process, including the multistakeholder open consultation process for the WSIS Forum 2018, in order to ensure that all features correspond to the real needs of the WSIS implementation process towards 2025. Phase one will open the call for submissions to the contest of the WSIS Prize 2018.
Requirements:
- The contest is open to all stakeholders, entities representing governments, private sector, international and regional institutions, civil society and academia. Each entity is allowed to submit one project per category.
- Stakeholders are invited to consult the rules for project submission and nomination criteria below prior to submitting a project.
Phase I: Submission phase—
Phase I will open the call for submissions to the contest of the WSIS Prizes 2018. During the period from 11 September 2017 until 2 January 2018, all stakeholders are invited to submit WSIS related projects to the contest for WSIS Prizes 2018. In order to process the submission, stakeholders are requested to complete the submission form for WSIS Prizes 2018 online that contains two parts:
- Part one: executive summary (150-250 words)
- Part two: project information (1500-2000 words and 1 photo)
Rules and guidelines for submission phase
- All projects must be submitted through the online questionnaire.
- For each project submission only one category should be selected, out of 18 categories.
- Each entity could submit one project per each category
- The same project may not be submitted twice.
- All details requested in the questionnaire should be completed strictly respecting the type of stakeholder and the structure of the submission template. The incomplete submissions will not be accepted. Minimum number of words requested should be respected (executive summary 100 words and project information 1500-2000 words/ Word Format).
- The project will be counted for the competition if the project description presents one activity and not a list of activities.
- All projects submitted to this competition should cover work that is completed or at the end of a major phase in order to provide evidence of results and impact on society.
- The project submission deadline should be strictly respected. Late submissions will not be accepted.
- Projects should be submitted in English only.
- Winning projects of previous WSIS Prizes contests are not eligible to participate in the contest.
Nomination criteria
- The submission should be complied with rules for project submission. The requested information in the template should respond to all questions and provide detailed information on the goals, timeframe, project’s added value and importance, results and challenges. Minimum number of words requested should be respected (executive summary 100 words and project information 1500-2000 words).
- It should highlight the relevance of the project to the respective WSIS Action Line as referenced in the Geneva Plan of Action.
- The project description should clearly demonstrate the following:
- the results achieved and impact generated
- community empowerment
- relevance to SDGs
- ability of the model to be replicated
- sustainability of project
- partnerships development
- promotion of WSIS values in the Society
