First Consultation Meeting of IFAP National Committees to take place next week in Moscow

 

04-12-2009 (Moscow)

 

The First Consultation Meeting of National Committees for UNESCO’s Information for All Programme (IFAP) will take place on 7 and 8 December 2009 in Moscow, Russia. This meeting is jointly organized by the IFAP Intergovernmental Council, the UNESCO Secretariat, the Russian IFAP Committee and its working body - the Interregional Library Cooperation Centre. It is officially sponsored by the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO and the Russian Ministry of Culture.

 

The main purpose of this meeting is to share information about the current activities of existing National IFAP Committees, discuss the prospects for future cooperation, as well as the possibilities for strengthening inter-regional and multilateral collaborations, increasing the Programme’s visibility and funding. The participants will also discuss ways of implementing the National Information Society Policy, a template document which was recently developed by IFAP.

 

The meeting will gather representatives of the following countries: Austria, Chile, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Jordan, Lithuania, Nigeria, Poland, Philippines, Russia, Slovakia, Thailand, as well as Azerbaijan and Moldova.

 

The Information for All Programme was established by UNESCO to provide a framework for international co-operation and partnerships in ‘building an information society for all’. IFAP focuses on ensuring that all people have access to information they can use to improve their lives. An Intergovernmental Council comprising 26 Member States is elected to guide the Programme in its planning and implementation. IFAP is part of UNESCO and serves to promote the achievement of its goals.

 

In October 2008, at its 180th session, the Executive Board of UNESCO endorsed the Strategic Plan for IFAP for 2008–2013 with the following five priorities: information for development, information literacy, information preservation, information ethics and information accessibility.

References:

• First Consultation Meeting of National Committees for UNESCO IFAP on the UNESCO Portal