UNESCO and TAG-Org launch partnership at Internet Governance Forum in Sharm El Sheikh

Sharm El Sheikh, 20-11-2009

UNESCO and the Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Organization (TAG-Org) officially launched their partnership on Monday, 16 November, at the fourth Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, from 15 to 18 November 2009.

UNESCO and TAG-Org had already signed a partnership agreement in Paris on 7 August 2009. This partnership was officially celebrated in Sharm El Sheikh at a high profile event, which was attended by several hundred representatives of various organizations, dealing with Internet Governance issues, from around the world.2009

The launch of this partnership agreement was officiated by Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO?s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information; Talal Abu Ghazaleh, Chairman of TAG.ORG; and Nitin Desai, Chairman of the IGF Multistakeholder Advisory Group, under the patronage of the Minister of Communication and Information of Egypt, Tarek Kamel.

This new agreement marks yet another landmark in UNESCOs efforts to develop strategic partnerships with the private sector. It is unique because it is the first such partnership with one of the leading business conglomerates in the Arab region, which has more than 72 offices around the world.

UNESCOs partnership with TAG.ORG principally focuses on fostering free, open, equitable and pluralistic knowledge societies in Arab countries. The agreement covers the evaluation of knowledge societies in the region, building ICT capacity, developing Arabic content in cyberspace and other ICT related issues. It is part of UNESCOs mandate to foster knowledge societies in the developing world and is expected to make a great contribution to the Organization?s activities related to ICT in the Arab region.

Source: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=29299&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html