UNESCO and TAG-Org sign partnership agreement

The agreement reflects the commitment of both TAG-Org and UNESCO to mobilize partners to build Arab knowledge societies, notably by increasing access to and measuring the use of ICT in different sectors of society, enhancing teacher training, and promoting Internet Domain Names in the Arabic script.

"The World Summit on the Information Society underscored the importance of a multi-stakeholder approach to helping people use the power of ICTs, to access the knowledge they need to improve their daily lives, and to achieve their full potential. UNESCO relies upon and welcomes partners such as TAG-Org to realize the vision of knowledge societies,"

stated Mr. Abdul Waheed Khan, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, UNESCO.

"As the Arab region grows in importance, it is crucial to TAG-Org and its regional operations in the 71 offices worldwide, to provide a credible profile of data in Arabic and English on the state of the Arab countries on ICT in education, science, culture, communication, and commerce. The availability of such data will assist local governments, institutions, and international organizations to understand gaps in ICT and to take a leading role in developing ICT infrastructure and in building ICT capacity and capability for sustainment in the context of the changing global environment," said Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, Founder and Chairman of TAG-Org. Such data, collected through digital surveys, digital reporting, and digital resources, will be available on a knowledge society portal created by TAG-Org in cooperation with UNESCO.

UNESCO and TAG-Org have agreed to develop an immediate action plan for the project; prepare a strategy to enhance multilingualism and internationalized Internet Domain Names; plan for implementation of UNESCO's ICT competency framework for teachers; work together to increase the availability of multilingual content on the Internet; and cooperate on a 'TAG-PEDIA' project for increased local content in science and technology, literature, history, art, and many other areas.