21st meeting of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Council for the Information for All Programme
 

2013-07-03

 

The annual meeting of the Bureau of the Intergovernmental Council for IFAP took place at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris on February 28, 2013, under the chairmanship of the Russian Federation. Mr. Evgeny Kuzmin, Chair of the IFAP Intergovernmental Council, presided over this Meeting. Among the attendees were all Bureau members who represent Austria, Latvia, the Philippines, Colombia, Grenada, United Republic of Tanzania, Sultanate of Oman, Belgium and the Russian Federation. Among the attendees was Mr. Janis Karklins, UNESCO Assistant Director General for Communication and Information, and Indrajit Banerjee, Director of the Knowledge Society Division, UNESCO, Secretary of the Intergovernmental Council for IFAP.

 

In the focus of attention of the Bureau were such issues as IFAP positioning, operations of IFAP in 2012 and action plans for the current period, tentative results of the assessment of the 2008−2013 IFAP Strategic Plan (the assessment was made at the end of 2012 based on the survey of the UNESCO Member States), and some other issues.

 

The Bureau members were unanimous in the opinion that the main advantage of IFAP is its multi-faceted approach to the discussion of the interlinked humanitarian challenges of the information society, the approach which has been shaped and refined in the process of IFAP implementation. It helps in studying the issues of access to and preservation of information, application of information for development, improvement of media and information literacy, information ethics, development of multilingualism in cyberspace. These topical issues constitute the priority trends of IFAP and should be considered in an integrated and coordinated fashion as constituent components of a balanced and human-oriented information policy.

 

The meeting recognized as highly successful the just finished First WSIS+10 Review Meeting and the IFAP Special Event, which was organized within its framework. 

 

Business reports for the year of 2012 were presented by the chairs of the IFAP working groups. In 2013, Russia has taken charge of the working group for linguistic and cultural diversity in cyberspace. The Bureau members praised Russia's initiatives for holding two international conferences: the one entitled Media and Information Literacy for Knowledge Societies that took place in Moscow in 2012 and the one entitled Internet and Socio-Cultural Transformation in the Information Society which is to be held under the auspices of the Sakhalin Region Government in September 2013.

 

The representatives of the UNESCO Secretariat reported an unprecedented interest of the Member States that was revealed in the process of assessing the implementation of the IFAP Strategic Plan. The replies to nearly 40 questions of the questionnaire were received from 52 countries. They showed that the overwhelming majority of the member states stand for the IFAP reinforcement and feel the need to support this Programme at a much higher level by all available resources from the Organization's regular budget. The report by the UNESCO Director General on the implementation of the IFAP Strategic Plan in 2008−2013 will be submitted for discussion at the 191st session of the UNESCO Executive Council in April 2013.

 

In conclusion, the UNESCO Secretariat expressed the intention to accept newcomers on a non-charged basis for a long-term training in the Communication and Information Sector provided the Member States which officially send these newcomers agree to pay for their accommodation.

 

Among the attendees to the Bureau meeting were Mr. Sergey Bakeykin, Deputy Chairman, and Ms. Tatyana Murovana, Executive Secretary of the Russian IFAP Committee, and Mr. Nikolay Khaustov, Member of the Secretariat of the Russian Commission for UNESCO.

 

 

References:

• Documents of the 21st meeting of the IFAP Bureau

 

 

 

 

From left to right: Mr. Evgeny Kuzmin, Chair, Intergovernmental Council for IFAP; Mr. Janis Karklins, Assistant Director General for Communication and Information, UNESCO; Mr. Indrajit Banerjee, Director of the Knowledge Society Division, UNESCO; and Mr. Paul Hector, Program Specialist, Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO

 

 

Mr. Dietrich Schüller, Vice-Chairperson, Intergovernmental Council for IFAP (Austria)

 

 

Mr. Sonny Coloma, Vice-Chairperson, Intergovernmental Council for IFAP; and a Member of the Permanent Delegation of the Philippines to UNESCO

 

 

 

Mr. Eric Nurse, Vice-Chairperson, Intergovernmental Council for IFAP (right), and Ms. Chafica Haddad, Deputy Permanent Delegate of Grenada to UNESCO 

 

 

Mr. Mohammed Shaaban Sheya, Bureau Member, Intergovernmental Council for IFAP (left) and a Member of the Permanent Delegation of the United Republic of Tanzania to UNESCO

 

 

Ms. Sanita Pavlyuta-Deslandes, Embassador of Latvia to UNESCO (left) and a Member of the Permanent Delegation of Latvia to UNESCO

 

 

Mr. Omar Salim Al-Shanfari, Bureau Member, Intergovernmental Council for IFAP (Oman)

 

 

Mr. Francisco Plata, Member of the Permanent Delegation of Colombia to UNESCO

 

  

Ms. Tatiana Murovana, Executive Secretary, Russian IFAP Committee, and Mr. Nikolay Khaustov, Member, Secretariat of the Russian Commission for UNESCO

 

 

Mr. Boyan Radoykov, Chief, Universal Access and Preservation Section, UNESCO 

 

 

 

Participants to the 21st IFAP Bureau Meeting