IFAP Information Society Observatory Launched

Further to the adoption by UNESCO's Executive Board, at its 180th session, of the Strategic Plan for the Information for All Programme (IFAP), UNESCO has assumed the task of assisting Member States in the formulation of national information policy frameworks, in particular within the framework of IFAP. The need for such policy frameworks was repeatedly highlighted in the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) outcome documents: the Geneva Declaration of Principles; the Geneva Plan of Action; the Tunis Commitment, and the Tunis Agenda for the Information Society. The latter document specifically calls on governments that have not yet done so to elaborate comprehensive, forward-looking and sustainable national e-strategies, as an integral part of national development plans and poverty reduction strategies, as soon as possible and before 2010.