World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)

The World Summit on the Information Society, or WSIS, is a United Nations process focused on global digital governance and development and establishes an important foundation for the multi-stakeholder approach to Internet governance.

The original 2 WSIS high level meetings held in 2003 and 2005 adopted a common vision to build a people-centred, inclusive and development-oriented Information Society, where everyone can create, access, utilise and share information and knowledge, enabling individuals, communities and peoples to achieve their full potential in promoting their sustainable development and improving their quality of life, premised on the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and respecting fully and upholding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

These high level meetings also agreed action lines, defined stakeholder roles and responsibilities for digital governance and development (including for governments, the United Nations and its specialised agencies, and civil society), and established key policy fora such as the WSIS Forum and the Internet Governance Forum (IGF). Further information about the WSIS, including the Geneva Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action and the Tunis Agenda, can be found on the WSIS website.

The WSIS was reviewed in 2015, a process known as WSIS+10. This review adopted UN Resolution A/70/125, which committed to a further review in 2025.

On 17 December 2025, the UN General Assembly adopted UN Resolution A/80/173, known as WSIS+20. Australia actively participated in the review process.

The next review of WSIS will occur in 2035.

WSIS action lines

The WSIS establishes 11 action lines to implement the common vision agreed in 2003 and 2005. These are:

  1. the role of public governance authorities and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development
  2. information and communication infrastructure
  3. access to information and knowledge
  4. capacity building
  5. building confidence and security in the use of ICTs
  6. enabling environment
  7. ICT Applications
    1. E-government
    2. E-business
    3. E-learning
    4. E-health
    5. E-employment
    6. E-environment
    7. E-agriculture
    8. E-science
  8. cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content
  9. media
  10. ethical dimensions of the Information Society
  11. international and regional cooperation.