1. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 1 Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO United Nations Foundation Washington, DC, USA – 7 May 2007 Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies

2. 2 Setting the frame  State of the World  Towards Knowledge Societies  UNESCO’s role and focus Benefits of partnerships  World Summit in the Information Society (WSIS)  Access  Capacity building  Media  Content Content Overview

3. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 3 State of the World: Some global trends Increase of the world’s population Increase of global threats to peace/international security New political and economic powers Competition for natural resources Enhanced international migration Persistence of poverty Increase of global hazards and natural disasters Rapidly multiplying global health crises Education under stress Strident advances of technoscience Threats to cultural diversity Persistence of divides

4. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 4 State of the World: Development Goals

5. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 5 State of the World: Human Development Human development seems to slowly advance in all parts of the world Trends of the Human Development Index (HDI) Source: UNDP Human Development Report, 2006

6. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 6 State of the World: Fighting poverty Asia leads the decline in global poverty Proportion of people living on less than $1 a day, 1990 and 2002 (Percentage ) Source: The Millennium Development Goals Report 2006

7. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 7 State of the World: Digital Divide Access to ICTs grows steadily, but ‘digital divide’ persists. Proportion of world population with telephone subscriptions, PCs and internet connections, 1990- 2004 (Percentage) Source: The Millennium Development Goals Report 2006

8. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 8 State of the World: Development assistance Led by debt relief, official development assistance increases sharply but still falls short of targets. Official development assistance from developed countries, 1990-2005 Source: The Millennium Development Goals Report 2006

9. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 9 State of the World: UN Reform Building on: Pledge of the world leaders at 2005 World Summit Strategic view in « Delivering as One » (Report of SG’s High-level Panel on UN System-wide Coherence (2006) Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review (TCPR): continuity in detailing country-level programming and activities Reflecting shared goals: Enhance relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, accountability and credibility of UN system Improve UN action aimed at promoting development, eradicating poverty, preventing and ameliorating humanitarian crises, protecting global environment

10. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 10 State of the World: UNESCO and UN Reform UNESCO’s commitment: Ensuring higher degree of UN system-wide coherence in order to reduce duplication and redundancies Maintaining feedback loop between normative/policy functions and operational/implementation activities Ensuring that countries are able to benefit from the full range of sectoral expertise, knowledge and resources available from within the UN system.

11. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 11 State of the World: Divides Knowledge Prosperity Globalization Inclusion Knowledge Divide or Digital Divide Lack of Knowledge Poverty Marginalization Exclusion

12. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 12 UNESCO’s role: Mandate & Functions UNESCO’s Mandate  Promote the free flow of ideas by word and image  Maintain, increase and spread knowledge Functions  Laboratory of ideas (e.g. Freedom of expression in cyberspace)  Standard-setter (e.g. Public service broadcast policies)  Clearinghouse (e.g. Archives and Libraries Portals)  Capacity builder in Member States (e.g. IPDC)  Catalyst for international cooperation (e.g. IFAP)

13. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 13 Knowledge for development Knowledge Economic Growth Cultural Enrichment Social Development Political Empowerment

14. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 14 UNESCO’s concept of Knowledge Societies Freedom Inclusiveness Diversity Empowerment

15. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 15 UNESCO’s role: Programme 2008-2009 Biennial sectoral priority 2: Fostering free, independent and pluralistic communication and universal access to information by  Promoting an environment conducive to freedom of expression and freedom of information  Fostering universal access to information  Promoting the development of free, independent and pluralistic media  strengthening the role of communication and information in fostering mutual understanding, peace and reconciliation, especially in open and post-conflict areas and post-disaster situations

16. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 16 UNESCO’s role: Programme 2008-2009 Biennial sectoral priority 2: Promoting innovative applications of ICTs for sustainable development by:  Fostering the development of infostructures;  Promoting people participation in sustainable development through communication media

17. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 17 Focus area: Freedom of Expression Promote freedom of expression & press freedom as basic human right * Foster media independence & pluralism as fundamental to democracy

18. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 18 Focus area: Media for development Develop people’s media capacities to: Express aspirations, share & access information, make informed decisions,

19. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 19 Focus area: Universal access Foster policies, capacities & tools for access to information and knowledge * Facilitate effective integration of ICTs in education, science, culture

20. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 20 CI Sector: Intergvmntl’ Programmes IFAP Infostructures (legale frameworks, etc) Information workers community Policy development and implementation IPDC Mass media, print press Journalists Project funding and delivery Contribute to building Knowledge Societies

21. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 21 UNESCO’s role: Private Sector Partnership Linking development approach and high-level technical know-how Putting vision into practice Partners:  Microsoft (e.g. ICT Competency Standards for Teachers, ICT-CST)  Intel (e.g. ICT-CST, Open source dissemination and teacher training)  CISCO (e.g. ICT-CST, Networking and IT academies)  Apple : (e.g. Digital content creation centers, Digital Campus, Digital Libraries)

22. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 22 UNESCO’s role: Partnership with Civil Society Professional NGOs UNESCO National Commissions IFAP National Committees Types of cooperation:  Needs identification, project design and implementation  Formulation of strategy and policies  Provision of technical assistance and expert advisory services.

23. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 23 General results of WSIS: International dialogue enhanced Frameworks for collaborative actions established Awareness of potential of ICT for development raised Debate shifted from technology to content WSIS as international framework Results for UNESCO Visibility increased UNESCO’s value-adding role in ICT area recognized Partners mobilized Concept of Knowledge Societies recognized UNESCO’s leading role in implementation endorsed Frame for global action

24. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 24 Action Lines under UNESCO’s responsibility C1. Promotion of ICTs for development C2. Information and communication infrastructure C3. Access to information & knowledge C4. Capacity building C5. Building confidence and security in the use of ICTs C6. Enabling environment C7. E-learning and E-Science C8. Cultural and linguistic diversity C9. Media C10.Ethical dimensions C11.International and regional cooperation WSIS : UNESCO as a facilitator

25. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 25 Access to information & knowledge (Action Line C3) Community access (in the North and in the South)  Establish multi-purpose community access points  Provide affordable or free Internet access  Put special emphasis on rural and underserved areas Research and development (Partnerships, University)  Promote R&D to facilitate accessibility of ICTs for all  Include R&D on access for the disadvantaged, marginalized and vulnerable groups  Possible cooperation with UNESCO Chairs in the US

26. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 26 Jointly promoting access Community Multimedia Centres Combining local radio by local people in local languages with a telecentre facility with ICT access Providing and strengthening communication and information facilities at the level of local communities Offering basic tools for introducing and managing community-centred development and change Research and development for access for all Allowing 10% of world population with disabilities full participation in the Information Society Integrating disability perspective in IT laws, policies and regulatory mechanisms Accommodating needs of persons with disabilities in R&D, including in design of hard- and software Opportunities for partnerships I

27. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 27 Information Literacy  Promote e-literacy skills for all  Take advantage of existing facilities such as libraries, multipurpose community centres, public access points  Establish local ICT training centres ICT for teacher training  Develop pilot projects to demonstrate the impact of ICT- based alternative educational delivery system  Use ICT for achieving Education for All targets, including basic literacy targets Capacity building (Action Line C4)

28. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 28 Cooperating to foster capacity building Information Literacy ICT for teacher training 35 million teachers required to achieve universal primary education by 2015 ICT as only way to help training teachers UNESCO projects in ICT for teacher training, e.g. Sub-saharan Africa Opportunities for partnerships II Providing people with skills/abilities for critical reception, assessment and use of information Raising awareness about the importance of information literacy at all levels of education process Establishing guidelines for integrating information literacy issues in curricula

29. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 29 Media (Action Line C9) Journalistic capacity building  Encourage media professionals in developed countries to establish partnerships and networks with the media in developing ones, especially in the field of training. Role of traditional media  Encourage traditional media to bridge the knowledge divide and to facilitate the flow of cultural content, particularly in rural areas.

30. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 30 Working together to develop media Journalistic capacity building Organizing training in journalism for print and broadcast media Providing instruction in media management and training of media technicians and engineers Developing model journalism curriculum for developing countries and emerging democracies Foster the role of traditional media Developing free and pluralistic media with a global approach to democratic development Empowering people to gain equitable access to knowledge and express themselves through free and pluralistic media Opportunities for partnerships III

31. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 31 Cultural Diversity and Content (Action Line C8) Libraries  Develop national policies and laws to ensure that libraries, archives, museums and other cultural institutions can play their full role of content—including traditional knowledge— providers in the Information Society, more particularly by providing continued access to recorded information. Content providers  Give support to media based in local communities and support projects combining the use of traditional media and new technologies for their role in facilitating the use of local languages, for documenting and preserving local heritage.

32. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 32 Joining forces to foster content development Libraries Support to digitization projects and protection of digital heritage (e.g. UNESCO’s e-Heritage Charter) Projects to the development of virtual libraries (e.g. World Digital Library, Greenstone) Support to development of standards for metadata (e.g. ISSN) Content providers Improve the endogenous production Support the distribution of quality audio-visual programmes in developing countries Exploit new ways of co-operation among governments, artists, industry leaders, broadcasters, etc. Opportunities for partnerships IV

33. Building Partnerships for Knowledge Societies 33 www.unesco.org/webworld