Six new projects covering four continents to advance inclusive knowledge societies

IFAP is UNESCO’s intergovernmental programme that supports Member States in fostering equitable societies through promoting universal access to information and knowledge.

The selected projects will help stakeholders in Georgia, India, Iran, Jamaica, Libya and Sri Lanka to advance meaningful and inclusive access to reliable information for all. The initiatives will contribute to IFAP’s six priority areas: information literacy, information accessibility, information preservation, information ethics, information for development, and multilingualism.

Information is a tool for empowerment, increasing opportunities and enabling the creation of socioeconomic value. IFAP focuses on the fundamental issues, emphasizing not only the importance of information access, but also the need to ensure that information is available, reliable, and beneficial to marginalized groups.

In Iran, the initiative will support a national assessment of women’s media and information literacy (MIL) skills, as well as their ability to contribute to MIL strategies, policies, and national programmes.

In India, the project focuses on digital capacity building and empowerment of women entrepreneurs in rural communities. The project will produce a manual "Rural Women Entrepreneurship Development Programme" that will serve as a roadmap for promoting entrepreneurship opportunities for women in rural communities by using digital skills.

The project in Georgia aims to improve the digital and information literacy skills of women and girls in remote communities, through capacity building events and training opportunities.

The initiative in Jamaica aims to support the development of a three-year sustainability plan for a community radio that contributes to the preservation of the Jamaican Maroon community’s documentary heritage and intangible cultural heritage. The project will develop the radio station’s website and App as well as its live global streaming service. It also aims to increase the capacity of the volunteers, 70% of whom are women, who support the radio station’s work.

Through another project, the Libyan Center for Archives and Historical Studies will identify scientific methods for preserving and disseminating the physical and audio archive of the Libyan history’s oral narrative.

In Sri Lanka, IFAP will assist in the automation of the oldest library in South Asia, the National Museum’s library collection management, to provide a user-friendly referencing tool for national and international researchers.