Paying special attention to the needs of the developing countries and assisting them to derive optimal benefits from the application of Information and Communication technologies is one of the key elements of the mission of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP). This has been reaffirmed in IFIP's decision in 2007 to make promoting digital equity as one of its strategic goals along with a resolve to create a global platform to move in that direction, by:

• Promoting practical demonstrator projects,
• Contributing to sharing knowledge and experiences e.g. through a series of conferences,
• Encouraging sharing of knowledge through appropriate access to relevant ICT literature.

The World IT Forum (WITFOR) is one of the more visible representations of this goal of IFIP. Recognizing the developmental opportunities offered by digital technologies and the need for the developing and the developed countries to collaborate to harness the potential of such opportunities, WITFOR is organized in close cooperation with the governments of the host countries and local communities, including national computer societies.

WITFOR aims at examining different initiatives on effective, context sensitive development and use of ICT and its applications, access to relevant information, and the development of "fair use principles".