Address by Mr Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of the Opening ceremony of the UNESCO Future Forum The Future of Knowledge Acquisition and Sharing UNESCO, 11 May 2009 Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very pleased to welcome you to the UNESCO Future Forum on Knowledge Acquisition and Sharing. This is the second Future Forum in a series that I launched on 2 March 2009, when a group of eminent experts discussed the impact of the global financial and economic crisis on multilateralism and UNESCO. As I said in my opening remarks at the March Forum, the current crisis requires UNESCO to intensify its efforts to advance Education for All; mobilize science for development; address emerging social and ethical challenges; and to promote cultural diversity and the free exchange of ideas and knowledge. I insisted on the free exchange of ideas and knowledge, because information and knowledge have always been crucial in tackling the challenges and crises that societies have faced. But the significance of knowledge acquisition goes well beyond problem solving. Knowledge of how to do things, how to communicate and how to work with others has been regarded since ancient times as the most precious wealth of humankind. Almost all cultures have placed emphasis on learning and acquiring knowledge for cultural enrichment and socioeconomic progress. DG/2009/059 Original: English
In the eighteenth century or Age of Enlightenment - the demand for democracy, the concept of openness and the gradual emergence of a public forum for knowledge fostered the spread of the ideas of universality, liberty and equality. The dissemination of knowledge through books and the printed press, as well as the extension of an education for all through schools and universities, accompanied this development. The dramatic advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the last twenty years, particularly the rapid emergence of the internet and the web as a global public network, have provided the ideal conditions for widening and globalizing the public forum for knowledge. Never before in human history has so much information been so readily available to so many. In an increasingly connected global community, the ability to access information and transform it into meaningful and useful knowledge is a key driver of sustainable social and economic development. Yet, knowledge acquisition and sharing is still far from equitable. Huge numbers of people, particularly in developing countries but also marginalized groups elsewhere, are denied the opportunities to acquire, use and share knowledge in this way. Narrowing the digital divide is essential. But that is not all. We also need to narrow the knowledge divide which cumulates rifts in knowledge creation, preservation, acquisition and sharing. This involves more than addressing infrastructure. It depends on political will, regulatory frameworks and the capacity to build knowledge societies that are inclusive, pluralistic, equitable and participatory. UNESCO was founded on a presumption of the importance of accelerating knowledge acquisition. It has always sought to promote a vision of how such knowledge societies could be built. One contribution towards that reflection was the 1996 report of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century. Its findings, that education throughout life is based upon four pillars: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be, have a universal and timeless validity. DG/2009/059 - Page 2
But it was perhaps its observation that the progress of the new information and communication technologies should give rise to a general deliberation on access to knowledge in the world of tomorrow that was most prescient. In the process of preparing for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), UNESCO crystallized this vision by proposing four principles to guide the use of ICTs in order to maximize their effectiveness for individual, community and national development. The principles are: quality education for all; universal access to information and knowledge; respect for cultural and linguistic diversity; and freedom of expression both in cyberspace and traditional printed media. A two day Ministerial Round Table at UNESCO organized in October 2003, in the context of the General Conference, fully endorsed this vision. As did the first phase of WSIS in Geneva. Two years later, at the second phase of WSIS in Tunis, I strongly advocated the need to operationalize these principles and move beyond the notion of an information society towards knowledge societies. Recognizing that the world was being transformed by ICTs, UNESCO wanted to shift the debate from connectivity to content, from technology to ethics. I emphasized that access to knowledge is the key determinant of who will prosper and advance. The same arguments underpinned the UNESCO World Report Towards Knowledge Societies published to coincide with the second phase of WSIS. The report s ten recommendations took up the ethical dimension of knowledge societies, urging the central importance of quality education; increasing community access to information; improving science knowledge sharing; enhancing linguistic diversity; and increasing women s contribution to knowledge societies among others. They linked development to inclusion. DG/2009/059 Page 3
UNESCO s active engagement and the acceptance of its vision of knowledge societies led to it, together with ITU, being assigned a lead facilitator role for the WSIS follow-up and implementation process. UNESCO was also given the responsibility of facilitating the implementation of six of the 11 Action Lines: access to information and knowledge; e-learning and e- science; cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content; media; ethical dimensions of the information society; international and regional cooperation. UNESCO initiatives such as the Community Media Centres or the World Digital Library Project seek to translate the vision of knowledge societies into concrete action. Ladies and Gentlemen, Building on the WSIS action lines and the recommendations of the UNESCO Knowledge Societies report, we have gathered today to consider the future prospects for knowledge acquisition and sharing. In their search for viable responses to the global crises that are currently destabilizing societies around the world, government leaders have recognized that investments in the social sector are critical to laying the foundation for recovery, sustainable development, economic growth and prosperity. Investment in the large and complex knowledge domains will be of particular relevance. One thing is certain: further radical changes are on the horizon. It can be anticipated that knowledge acquisition and sharing will increasingly be technology mediated, and that traditional educational processes will be further revolutionized. For example, it is likely that in the coming decades the importance of acquiring factual knowledge will decrease. At the same time, the ability to learn, the ability to judge, organize and use relevant information, as well as to navigate complex systems will take on increasing importance. DG/2009/059 - Page 4
The other revolution is the social dimension. A fascinating development is the use of technology for social networking and enabling each person to become a content creator I am thinking of Facebook, You Tube, blogging and Twitter. In the sciences, we can already see that traditional scientific processes have been revolutionized through the creation of new knowledge communities. There is a growing need for open access content, open standards, open data structures, and standardized info-structures. Increased focus on education and research will also impact the pace and content of knowledge acquisition and sharing in the sciences. Creative business models are emerging to support the sustained creation and dissemination of high quality scientific digital content. Experts have warned us about the need to ensure the long-term availability of digital content and interoperability at the global level. Likewise, the new networking tools and the ability to showcase one s culture on the web have an increasing impact on promoting cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue. This is hugely significant in terms of social cohesion, development and peace. We need to manage it well. These are some of the developments we can foresee. However, globally we lack long-term strategies and policies to raise awareness about the role and impact of ICTs in the knowledge process. We also lack strategies for harnessing ICTS to develop new approaches in education, the sciences and culture. UNESCO wants to work with all stakeholders to identify the challenges arising from these developments and to determine areas in which international policy planning and governance might be necessary to address them. Today s Forum has three interlinked objectives: First, to strengthen awareness among UNESCO s stakeholders of the emerging trends and challenges related to the impact of ICTs on knowledge acquisition and sharing; DG/2009/059 Page 5
Secondly, to enable Member States to develop strategies and policies to foresee and address such trends and challenges, particularly in the areas of education, science and culture; Thirdly, to analyze the impact of knowledge acquisition and sharing on sustainable development and the achievement of the Internationally-Agreed Development Goals. For example, we need to understand the consequences of the various gaps that exist such as between developing and developed countries, within countries, and between women and men. Unfortunately, other commitments prevent me from staying for the whole the debate. However, I will be following with great interest the outcomes of your discussions. Thank you for your attention. DG/2009/059 - Page 6