World Open Educational Resources Congress

Wednesday 20 – Friday 22 June, 2012
Room XII, UNESCO HQ, Paris, France

OER Logo 2012 J. Mello,used under a Creative Commons license CC-BY

In full partnership with the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and through the generous support of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, UNESCO is organizing the 2012 World OER Congress, which will take place on 20 – 22 June 2012 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

The aims of the Congress are to:

  • Release the 2012 Paris Declaration;
  • Showcase the world’s best practices in OER policies, initiatives, and experts;
  • and celebrate the 10th anniversary of the 2002 UNESCO Forum that coined the term OER.

The Congress aims to encourage more governments to adopt policies that include OER and will bring together Ministers of Education/Human Resource Development, senior policy makers, expert practitioners, researchers and relevant stakeholders.

It is a 2-part event with an official negotiation component by UNESCO Member States and selected invited organizations and individuals negotiating the text of the 2012 Paris Declaration, and an open exhibition of OER practices and workshops and seminars.

Regional Policy Forums

In order to raise global awareness for the June 2012 OER Congress, UNESCO and COL are holding a number of regional policy forums on OER in all UNESCO regions.

Their purpose will be threefold:

  • to profile OER activities in the region;
  • to obtain further details about government OER policies or intentions and,
  • to seek input to the Declaration that will be presented to the World OER Congress in June 2012.

 The Regional Policy Forums are scheduled as follows:

Back to top