The United Nations Group on the Information Society (UNGIS) is an inter-agency mechanism composed of 29 United Nations agencies. It was created with the main objective to coordinate substantive and policy issues regarding the implementation of the outcomes of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
UNGIS’ s work focuses on developing collaboration and partnerships among members of the UN-Chief Executives Board (CEB), in order to contribute to the achievement of the WSIS objectives, to help to maintain ICT-related issues as well as science and technology at the top of the UN Agenda, and to mainstream ICT for development issues in the mandate of CEB members. The group also aims to promote and sustain the coordination and effectiveness of the support offered to UN member states in their actions aimed at achieving the WSIS goals.
UNGIS has also been working on several specific initiatives in the areas of: mobile for development (with the aim to identify key policy initiatives and contribute to a successful implementation of projects covering mobile for development), open access to scientific knowledge (promoting the free of charge accessibility of public financed research data across UNGIS' organisations), science, technology and innovation policy (STIP) reviews (assisting governments in ensuring that science, technology and innovation programmes support the national development agenda) and child online protection (international collaborative network for action to promote the online protection of children worldwide). In addition, UNGIS is involved in the Partnership on Measuring ICT for Development, launched in 2004 as an international, multistakeholder initiative aimed to improve the availability and quality of ICT data and indicators, particularly in developing countries.
