UNESCO (2005) TOWARDS
KNOWLEDGE SOCIETIES: RECOMMENDATIONS
In light of the observations contained in this report and of the
possibilities for reflection and action that it explores, UNESCO would like to
call the attention of governments on all levels, of governmental and
non-governmental organizations, and of the private sector and civil society to
the need to implement the following recommendations, which throw into relief
the ethical dimension of knowledge societies and propose specific initiatives
to spur their growth.
1. Invest more in
quality education for all to ensure equal opportunity
Commitment to the expansion of knowledge societies is a matter of global
concern. It is indispensable for the reduction of poverty, the implementation
of collective security and the effective exercise of human rights. That
commitment must translate into not only stepped-up efforts on the part of all
the world’s countries to reinvest, depending on their means, the fruits of
their growth in strengthening the productive capacities of knowledge, but also
an increased mobilization of resources in favour of education for all through a
better partnership between developing countries, donor countries, civil society
and the private sector. In particular:
• Countries should earmark a substantial share of their GDP for
education spending and confirm the commitment made at
• Donor countries must significantly raise the percentage of ODA
intended for education and, in partnership with the beneficiary countries, make
that assistance more reliable, flexible and sustainable. More specifically,
they should pledge to provide countries with the additional resources required
to achieve the goal of primary education for all.
• The international community should also encourage innovative education
and research funding methods, including debt-swaps, and debt and debt service
remission, in order to release the resources needed for basic
education.
• Governments, the private sector and social partners must explore the
possibility of gradually setting up, in the course of the next decades, an
education “study time entitlement” that would entitle people to a certain
number of years of education after the completion of compulsory schooling,
usable by all depending on their personal choices, paths, experience and
timetables.
• The contribution of institutions of higher education to lifelong
education for all must be encouraged by adopting diversified class schedules
and designing relevant formulae.
• All of these steps must benefit in priority the poorest and most
marginalized populations, as well as vulnerable groups such as orphans and
people with disabilities.
• Access to education and quality education must be thought of as
interdependent and inseparable needs and rights. Education must teach learners
how to cope with the challenges of the twenty-first century by encouraging, in
particular, the development of creativity, the values of good citizenship and
democracy, and the skills necessary for everyday and professional life.
Education investments must aim to improve the learning environment and the
status of all the teaching professions (see Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 10).
2. Increase places
of community access to information and communication technologies
To facilitate universal access to networks, it is important to build on
the success of certain experiments currently under way in this area. Places of
community access, in particular Community Multimedia Centres, that promote
the spread and sharing of knowledge, and make information and communication
technologies new vectors of socialization, should be increased on the national
level, especially in developing countries. To strengthen the learning and
handling skills of digital tools, the spread and use of freeware and
inexpensive computer hardware should be stimulated in communities and countries
that lack sufficient resources, and software designers and access providers
should be encouraged to produce culturally adapted contents that contribute to
the growth of freedom of expression (see Chapters 1 and 2).
3. Widen the
contents available for universal access to knowledge
The promotion of the public domain of knowledge is predicated on the
notion that it is truly and easily accessible to as many people as possible.
The main knowledge centres, such as institutions of
higher education, research centres, museums and
libraries, should play a greater role in the production and spread of knowledge
through better networking made possible by low-cost high-speed connections. The
availability and spread of knowledge in the public domain, especially in
science, must be integrated into respective policies and laws. The creation of
portals of protected works unavailable on the market should be encouraged –
subject to the agreement of publishers and copyright-holders – by any entity
interested in investing in them: libraries, companies, administrations, and
international and non-governmental organizations (see Chapters 3 and 10).
4. Develop collaboratories: towards better scientific knowledge
sharing
Collectively managed scientific cooperation networks and infrastructures
accessible to researchers from several countries and regions, including those
working in developing countries, should be set up. These collaboratories,
which enable scientists separated from each other by huge distances to work
together on specific projects, such as the study of the human genome or
AIDS/HIV research, offer an outstanding way of sharing and spreading knowledge
more effectively (interoperability and meta-data standards, facilities,
databanks, large information technology centres and
possibly larger infrastructures). Setting up collaboratories
might lead to the creation of sustainable platforms for sharing knowledge,
research and innovation between the planet’s different regions, especially
along the North-South and South-South axes (see Chapters 6 and 8).
5. Share
environmental knowledge for sustainable development
The pursuit of sustainable development goals requires sharing
environmental knowledge between industrialized and developing countries. Global
environmental monitoring instruments based on local knowledge as well as on
scientific and technological knowledge should be developed and the conditions
for their implementation should be created. An example is the January 2005
United Nations proposal to create a global warning system for all kinds of
natural risks. Such instruments will be indispensable for ensuring the
follow-up of major environmental recommendations and could contribute to the
creation of a genuine public space of Earth information, a source of safety for
present and future generations. Environmental knowledge sharing in the framework
of new types of partnerships proposed at the Johannesburg World Summit on
Sustainable Development should also be encouraged (see Chapter 8).
6. Making
linguistic diversity a priority: the challenges of multilingualism
Linguistic diversity is an essential factor of cultural diversity in all
its manifestations. Knowledge societies must be based on a “double
multilingualism” – that of individuals and that of cyberspace. In addition, it
is advisable to encourage bilingualism and, insofar as possible trilingualism, as early as primary school. Furthermore, the
creation of multilingual digital contents must be supported, especially in the
teaching field. Lastly, the promotion of linguistic diversity in cyberspace
must take full advantage of the opportunities offered by the internet as well
as other information and communication technologies, for preserving,
transforming and raising the value of “minority” languages. Appropriate
technologies relied upon for this effort should receive increased research and
development investments from the public and private sectors, such as Unicode,
automatic translation software, development of international domain names in
languages using non-Latin alphabets, etc. (see Chapters 2 and 9).
7. Move towards
knowledge certification on the internet: quality labels
It is important to promote thinking about the technical and legal
feasibility of knowledge certification norms and standards with the aim of
ensuring users’ access to a certain number of reliable, relevant contents,
especially in the area of scientific information. With regard to the internet,
now a major information source, it would be advisable to encourage the setting
up of norms and objective guidelines enabling web users to identify sites whose
information is particularly reliable and remarkable because of its quality. The
definition of norms and standards, necessarily a multidisciplinary task, could
unite the efforts of public and private educational, scientific and cultural
institutions, as well as the relevant international non-governmental
organizations. For example, it could lead to the introduction of quality labels
covering a very wide range of knowledge (see Chapters 1, 2 and 8).
8. Intensify the
creation of partnerships for digital solidarity
The creation of innovative partnerships bringing together
representatives of states, regions, cities, and of relevant international
governmental and nongovernmental organizations, the private sector and civil
society must be stepped up to achieve digital solidarity. This working
framework, which emphasizes decentralized initiatives, would be based on
mechanisms of solidarity between industrialized countries, newly industrialized
countries and developing countries, and within single countries: “digital
twinning arrangements” between municipalities and local governments, project
“sponsorship” and a more effective use of computers (see Chapters 1, 2 and 6).
9. Increase
women’s contribution to knowledge societies
Gender equality and women’s empowerment must be at the heart of the constituent
principles of knowledge societies. The public domain of knowledge must include
the contribution of women’s specific knowledge. It is important to facilitate
women’s acquisition of skills and abilities that meet their specific
development needs. It will also be important to work towards eliminating gender
disparities with targeted measures, such as creating scholarships for girls,
setting up special times to allow women in developing countries to become
familiar with the internet, increasing the number of female teachers, promoting
continuing training opportunities for women and taking steps to encourage their
access to scientific research and technological engineering. The creation on a
national level of ombudswomen (mediators), in charge of hearing cases of
confirmed discrimination and monitoring the achievement of these goals over a
set period of time, could improve the monitoring of progress achieved in
women’s participation in positions of responsibility in national and
international public organizations and in the private sector (see Chapters 1,
2, 4, 7 and 10).
10. Measure
knowledge: towards knowledge society indicators?
The various players concerned could study the feasibility of knowledge
society indicators that could contribute to establishing a better definition of
priorities with the aim of narrowing the digital divide on the national and
international levels. Reliable measuring instruments are indispensable for any
policy and action, whether they involve the public sphere, the private sector
or civil society. It is therefore advisable to forge, as far as possible, the
statistical tools that can be used to measure knowledge by gathering data that
involve not only economic variables. Such a monitoring system requires
partnerships between governments, international governmental and
nongovernmental organizations, private businesses and civil society to arrive
at a quantitative and qualitative improvement of statistical capacities. In
addition to the production of science and technology indicators, in particular
in developing countries for which data remain by and large sketchy, this
measuring effort should focus on the other constituent dimensions of knowledge
societies, such as education, culture and communication (see Chapters 6 and
10).