TAG-Org and UNESCO officially launch cooperation agreement in Sharm El Sheikh

The launch will take place during the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which will be held on November 16, 2009.

TAG-Org and UNESCO signed a cooperation agreement in August 2009 in order to mobilize partners and resources to build Arab knowledge societies and promote the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) notably by increasing access to the use of ICT in different sectors of society.

According to the terms of the agreement, TAG-Org is committed to working closely with UNESCO to develop strategies for enhancing education in the Arab region, in line with UNESCO's priorities and objectives, and in view of TAG-Org's expertise in ICT training and teaching.

Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, TAG-Org chairman and CEO will be the main speaker at the event along with Nittin Dessai, the IGF chairman in addition to Mr. Abdul Waheed Khan UNESCO assistant director-general for Communication and Information.

During the venue, the first set of projects to be implemented under the agreement, mainly the Media and ICT indicators report in the Arab World, and the E-Learning Initiative will be launched.

Partnering with TAG-Org on these projects is the Arab Knowledge Management Society (AKMS), a not-for-profit pan Arab organization striving to play a pioneering role in motivating, and developing the capacities of Arab individuals and institutions in order to create an Arab knowledge community.

The importance of these projects stems from the growing importance of the Arab region at large as an emerging knowledge based region, that it has become crucial, 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.

TAG-Org and UNESCO are planning to create a knowledge society portal on which such data, collected through digital surveys, digital reporting, and digital resources, will be made available.

Reflecting the commitment of both parties to the success and sustainability for this project, an immediate action plan has been prepared with the objective of: preparing a strategy to enhance multilingualism and internationalized Internet Domain Names; planning for implementation of UNESCO's ICT competency framework for teachers; working together to increase the availability of multilingual content on the Internet; and cooperating on an online Arabic encyclopedia under the name "TAG-PEDIA" aimed for increasing local content in science and technology, literature, history, art, and many other areas.