The 19th World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators Symposium (WTIS-24), a leading global forum for telecommunication and ICT statistics, took place from September 23 to 24, 2024, in Geneva, Switzerland. This year’s edition was held back-to-back with the 15th Meeting of the Expert Group on Telecommunication/ICT Indicators (EGTI) and the 12th Meeting of the Expert Group on ICT Household Indicators (EGH), which took place from September 25 to 26, 2024, also in Geneva.
LIRNEasia CEO, Helani Galpaya, spoke at the High-Level Panel titled “Data for Universal and Meaningful Connectivity” at the WTIS 2024. Her interventions presented LIRNEasia’s big data analytics and nationally representative household survey work, which contributed to improving policies and practices around social safety nets in Sri Lanka. She also discussed findings from the work on mapping public-private data-sharing partnerships, highlighting key elements such as trust, capacity, funding, technical architecture, and policies that enable data sharing across sectors.”
LIRNEasia Policy Fellow Shazna Zuhyle moderated a panel titled “Shaping the ICT Statistics Agenda: Report from the EGTI” at WTIS, where the progress and work of EGTI, an initiative LIRNEasia has been part of for many years, were reported back to member states.
Ms. Zuhyle also chaired a session during the 15th EGTI meeting, held immediately after the two-day WTIS event. Her session focused on “Measuring the Affordability of ICT Services to Monitor Progress Towards Universal and Meaningful Connectivity” where she also addressed the challenges of defining price baskets for mobile phone usage across countries with diverse consumption patterns.
Under the theme “Metrics to action: Bridging data gaps for universal and meaningful connectivity”, the 2024 edition brought together policymakers, business leaders, regulators, statisticians, and researchers to learn, share, and help shape the telecommunication/ICT statistics agenda.
