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Theme WTISD 2010
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Better city, better life with ICTs
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At its 2009 session, ITU Council adopted the theme:
“Better city, better life with ICTs” to mark World
Telecommunication and Information Society Day in
2010.
The WTISD 10 theme is juxtaposed with that of the
Shanghai World Expo 2010, which is dedicated to
promoting “Better Cities, Better Life” and which will
showcase a number of initiatives aimed at achieving
greener, safer, healthier, prosperous, inclusive and
well-managed cities — where over half the world’s
population resides.
ICTs provide solutions to many of the problems facing
cities even as they become magnets for migrating
populations as well as contribute to making them
more eco-friendly and economically viable. For many
city dwellers, it is nearly impossible to imagine life
without ICTs. From television to mobile phones and
the Internet, ICTs have reshaped the world, helping
billions of people to live, work and play. ICTs present
innovative ways of managing our cities — smart
buildings, intelligent traffic management, new
efficiencies in energy consumption and waste
management, and not least exchanging information
and knowledge and communicating on the move in an
increasingly converged information society.
While the world’s cities are undoubtedly endowed
with many advantages, the disparities between the
haves and the have nots among urban populations is
often a vivid reminder that the vast majority is left out
of the reach of development. It is ironic that even in
densely populated urban centres countless millions
are deprived of access to the means of
communication and information that are taken for
granted by others. Along with this growing digital
divide, the lack of safe drinking water, sanitation,
food, shelter, health care and education are basic
needs that are addressed by the Millennium
Development Goals, which calls for the significant
improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum
dwellers by 2020.
By tapping into the huge potential of ICTs to improve
the lives of people and by providing affordable and
equitable access to information and knowledge to
empower everyone to achieve their aspirations,
administrations can contribute towards meeting the
rising expectations of an ever-growing population in
the world’s cities. Acting as catalysts for a more
productive and better life, ICTs open the door to a
myriad solutions that help achieve harmony among
the spatial, social and environmental aspects of cities
and among their inhabitants.
The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS),
which met in Geneva in 2003 and in Tunis in 2005,
called upon countries to consider establishing
national mechanisms to achieve universal access in
both underserved rural and urban areas in order to
bridge the digital divide. ITU is committed to
connecting the world and to ensure that the benefits of
ICT reach the remotest parts of the world, including
the dark spots that leave millions unconnected in our
teeming cities.
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