Information for All Programme

UNESCO Information for All Programme (IFAP) was launched in 2001. The overall goal of IFAP is to help UNESCO Member States develop and implement national information policies and knowledge strategies in a world increasingly using information and communication technologies (ICT). In order to achieve this goal, the Programme concentrates its efforts on the five priority areas:

  • Information for Development focuses on the value of information for addressing development issues. 
  • Information Literacy empowers people in all walks of life to seek, evaluate, use and create information effectively to achieve their personal, social, occupational and educational goal. 
  • Information Preservation will be predominantly executed by strengthening the underlying principles of the Memory of the World Programme, beyond its registers, which serve as catalysts to alert decision makers and the public at large. 
  • Information Ethics cover the ethical, legal and societal aspects of the applications of ICT and derive from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 
  • Information Accessibility encompasses the many issues surrounding availability, accessibility and affordability of information, as well as the special needs of people with disabilities.
  • Multilingualism: Language is a primary means for communicating information and knowledge, thus the ability to access content on the Internet in a language which one can use is a key determinant for the extent to which one can participate in the knowledge societies.

The Programme seeks to:

  • promote international reflection and debate on the ethical, legal and societal challenges of the information society;
  • promote and widen access to information in the public domain through the organization, digitization and preservation of information;
  • support training, continuing education and lifelong learning in the fields of communication, information and informatics;
  • support the production of local content and foster the availability of indigenous knowledge through basic literacy and ICT literacy training;
  • promote the use of international standards and best practices in communication, information and informatics in UNESCO's fields of competence; and
  • promote information and knowledge networking at local, national, regional and international levels.

The Programme is guided in its planning and implementation by an Intergovernmental Council comprising 26 UNESCO Member States that are elected by UNESCO’s General Conference. The Council reviews and assesses IFAP achievements, considers ways for the expansion of the Programme and discusses fund-raising schemes for its successful implementation, defines the main areas under IFAP’s mandate requiring increased international cooperation, further promotes the involvement of Member States in the Programme, and recommends the future orientations and action lines for the Programme. Lithuania was among the Member States elected to the Council for the two consecutive periods from 2013 to 2021, represented by Prof. Dr. Renaldas Gudauskas, the Director General of the Martynas Mažvydas National Library and Head of the National IFAP Committee, established in 2014 and active until 2021.

On 2 October 2015 at the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania the National IFAP Committee and the Committee on the Development of Information Society under the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania organized a round-table discussion entitled Multilingual and multicultural content services for network society. The purpose of the discussion was to mobilize Lithuanian politicians, scientists, experts, representatives of non-governmental organizations for a public three-hour discussion. The speakers and participants of the discussion have prepared a document of Recommendations concerning the actualization of multilingual and multicultural concepts enshrined in UNESCO documents and vital for the successful development of information society in Lithuania. These Recommendations were addressed to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, and the Ministry of Transport and Communications as well as UNESCO International IFAP Council.