Presentation at IFLA Webinar 15 December 2015 about the role all librarians can play in advocating for the SDGs and the importance of access to information and libraries in the UN 2030 Agenda
5. Access to Information
Target 16.10: “Ensure public
access to information and protect
fundamental freedoms, in
accordance with national
legislation and international
agreements”
Goal 16: Promote peaceful and inclusive societies
for sustainable development, provide access to
justice for all and build effective, accountable and
inclusive institutions at all levels
6. Adoption is the first step
Image: Ireland United Nations, https://twitter.com/irishmissionun/status/627979198074888193
7. • An existing, funded network that reaches
the local level and which can be used to
deliver programmes
– including government programmes in some
cases
• Skills and resources to help the population
achieve universal literacy
• Access to research, information and data
• Public access to ICT supports digital
inclusion
What can libraries contribute to the
SDGs?
8. We can help solve the infrastructure gap
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/nov/18/14tn-dollars-a-year-needed-to-reach-
global-goals-for-world-poorest
9. Will help you to advocate
to make sure that libraries
and access to information
are included as part of
national and regional
development plans that
support UN 2030 Agenda
http://www.ifla.org/libraries-
development
IFLA Toolkit: Take action
10. Processes and who to contact
1. New national development plan
Country will formulate a new national
development plan using the SDGs and regional
plans as the basis
Contact: Ministry for Development, Minister
responsible for SDGs
2. Existing national development process
SDGs will be incorporated into existing national
development process.
Contact: Ministry for Development, Minister
responsible for SDGs, Ministry of Education,
Culture (and others)
3. Variety of plans and processes
SDGs will be integrated across different
portfolios and policies as these countries do
not have a single national development plan.
Policies may or may not be updated to
specifically reference the SDGs.
Contact: Ministry of Education, Culture (and
others)
4. Not yet known
It is not yet known what the process will be.
Contact: UN Country Team contacts – eg your
local UNDP office
11. • Panama: Decree to adopt SDGs announced 6 October
• Tanzania: Will include SDGs in next 5 year National
Development Plan
• Ghana: National Development Planning Commission will
incorporate into overall development plan
• Colombia: With ECLAC, have published full analysis mapping
each SDG target to national targets
• Zimbabwe: Integrate with Zim-Asset
• Uganda: National Planning Authority (NPA) will fully integrate
the SDGs into the Second National Development Plan
• Open Government Partnership (68 countries including USA,
UK, Canada): September 2015 Declaration commits
governments to take advantage of the OGP infrastructure to
achieve Goal 16
Some examples
12. SDGs and examples of some goals
Image: Global Goals www.globalgoals.org
13. Uganda: The National Library of Uganda has an ICT
training program designed for female farmers, providing
access to weather forecasts, crop prices, and support to
set up online markets, in local languages. This
programme increases the economic well-being of women
through technology skills.
Beyond Access (2012) Empowering Women and Girls Through ICT at Libraries http://beyondaccess.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Beyond-
Access_GirlsandICT-Issue-Brief.pdf
5. Gender Equality
14. Europe: 250,000 people find jobs through their public
library in the European Union each year. Public access to
ICT and skills enables people to apply for jobs, as the
application process for all jobs has moved online.
Public Libraries 2020 (2014) See the numbers http://www.publiclibraries2020.eu/content/see-numbers
8. Good Jobs and Economic Growth
15. United Kingdom: The British Library’s Endangered
Archives Project aims to contribute to the preservation of
archival material that is in danger of destruction, neglect
or physical deterioration world-wide. Within its aim, the
project digitises and makes available materials from a
large variety of countries often it enables countries and
libraries with fewer funds to preserve and safeguard their
documentary heritage.
11. Sustainable Cities and Communities
16. Moldova: libraries are contributing to Open Government Partnership
(OGP) action plans, a platform between government, civil society and
business to drive commitments to open government and accountability.
Librarians attend civil society meetings to help develop the country’s
national action plan, and to include the role of libraries as a supporter
of access to information.
16. Peace and Justice
17. • Make the Goals famous: Share information about the
SDGs at your library
• Ensure your library fully lives up to the promise of the
Lyon Declaration: http://www.lyondeclaration.org/
• Learn more about what people in your country want from
the Goals at The World We Want and the MyWorld data
site
• https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/topics
• https://www.worldwewant2015.org
• http://data.myworld2015.org
• UN Depository Libraries have an essential role in
communicating information and research to help achieve
the Goals
Every librarian can take part
In September 2015, after more than three years of negotiations and intense involvement from many stakeholders, including IFLA, the Member States of the United Nations adopted the post-2015 Development Agenda to succeed the Millennium Development Goals, Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The new UN 2030 Agenda is an inclusive, integrated framework of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with a total of 169 Targets spanning economic, environmental and social development. They lay out a plan for all countries to actively engage in making our world better for its people and the planet.
The UN 2030 Agenda will help all UN Member States focus their attention on poverty eradication, climate change, and the development of people. By achieving this Agenda, no one will be left behind. All countries in the world must achieve the Goals. The UN 2030 Agenda is a political commitment, which means that everyone, including libraries and civil society, will have a role in making sure governments are accountable for implementing the SDGs.
Libraries support many aspects of The UN 2030 Agenda’s vision and the SDGs. Libraries are key public institutions that have a vital role to play in development at every level of society.
Increasing access to information and knowledge across society, assisted by the availability of information and communications technologies (ICTs), supports sustainable development and improves people’s lives. Therefore, IFLA has been advocating over the past two years to ensure that access to information, ICTs and culture are included as part of the post-2015 development agenda.
IFLA engagement in coalitions and UN processes
IFLA has been represented at each of the negotiation meetings throughout 2014-2015 in New York which have developed the components of the post-2015 development agenda: the SDGs, declaration, means of implementation and monitoring and follow up processes. IFLA has worked in coalition with other civil society organisations and is a steering committee member of the Transparency, Accountability and Participation Network (TAP Network), a coalition of 120 civil society organisations, to support our advocacy
Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development
To support our advocacy, IFLA led the creation of the Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development in 2014. The Lyon Declaration signatories calls upon the Member States of the United Nations to make an international commitment to use the post-2015 development agenda to ensure that everyone has access to, and is able to understand, use and share the information that is necessary to promote sustainable development and democratic societies.
600 institutions and associations from within and beyond the library sector, including development agencies, media organisations, gender, ICT and education campaigners have signed, making the Lyon Declaration the most successful campaign of its type that IFLA has ever undertaken. The Declaration is available at http://www.lyondeclaration.org/
Our biggest ask in the process was around Access to Information. As a result of advocacy by IFLA, our members, Lyon Declaration signatories, coalition partners in civil society and UN Member States, access to information has been recognised in the SDGs as a target under Goal 16 “Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.”:
Target 16.10: “Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements”
Culture (target 11.4) and ICT (targets 5b, 9c, 17.8) have also been included in the SDGs. And, universal literacy is recognised in the vision for the UN 2030 Agenda.
http://www.lyondeclaration.org/signatories/
Why is Access to Information so important?
Access to information supports development by empowering people, especially marginalised people and those living in poverty, to:
Exercise their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights;
Be economically active, productive and innovative;
Learn and apply new skills;
Enrich cultural identity and expression;
Take part in decision-making and participate in an active and engaged civil society;
Create community-based solutions to development challenges;
Ensure accountability, transparency, good governance, participation and empowerment;
Measure progress on public and private commitments on sustainable development.
Providing access to information is at the heart of what we do in libraries.
Recognition by the UN is just the first step as the work will really begin when the SDGs start to be implemented by governments on 1 January. Advocacy at the national level is essential to ensuring that governments recognise and commit to supporting access to information and libraries as they implement the SDGs. This is where all of you can get involved.
Libraries must now show that they can drive progress across the entire UN 2030 Agenda. While the SDGs are universal goals, each country will be responsible for developing and implementing national strategies to achieve them, and will be expected to track and report its own progress toward each target. As these plans are developed, the library community in each country will have a clear opportunity to communicate to their government leaders how libraries serve as cost-effective partners for advancing their development priorities.
what do we want to get out of this? 2030 agenda is an advocacy opportunity because libraries need:
Sufficient funding to provide quality services, and trained staff;
To be included in policymaking for open government, access to information, and culture;
Access to a diversity of information for their patrons, spanning all media in all formats;
The freedom to provide access for all, in line with Article 19 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
IFLA has supported members through regular updates, a toolkit to support the organisation of national-level meetings with UN representatives and advice on advocating for the role of libraries in national development plans. Librarians in countries including Australia, Germany, Sweden, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Ghana, Guatemala, Colombia and several others have successfully held meetings with their representatives using these materials.
Library services contribute to improved outcomes across the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by:
Promoting universal literacy, including media and information literacy, and digital literacy skills;
Closing gaps in access to information and helping government, civil society and business to better understand local information needs;
Providing a network of delivery sites for government programmes and services
Advancing digital inclusion through access to ICT, and dedicated staff to help people develop new digital skills
Serving as the heart of the research and academic community
Preserving and providing access to the world’s culture and heritage
These probably look very familiar and are our general asks and statements about the role of libraries – SDGs are just one of many advocacy and international processes. This means that we can reuse, adapt, repurpose our advocacy asks and use the SDGs as leverage. It’s not all or nothing.
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/nov/18/14tn-dollars-a-year-needed-to-reach-global-goals-for-world-poorest
A key challenge that the SDGs must resolve is the cost. Telecommunications infrastructure is the biggest cost – libraries already exist, and and provide access in many places. We can help support governments and industry in reducing these costs.
What does it include?
Overview of the process
What you need to do now
Steps to take in contacting policymakers
How to implement and raise visibility of the agenda in your own library – be an advocate at every level
First step to help implement the SDGs is to be a part of your country’s agenda
Find out if your country has already started working on national development plans
Find out which government departments or ministries are responsible
Organize meetings and take part in open consultations
Identify the policymakers in your country:
If your country has a Minister or senior staff member appointed to implement the SDGs, request a meeting with them;
These are all the countries we know about for now. We need your help to research what is happening in your own country. Read the news, talk to contacts in other organisations, talk to your national library or library association
Find out if there will be workshops in your country for policymakers in which civil society can participate to find out more about the process and key players.
We need support from you to find out what will happen
It provides an additional opportunity for resources and advocacy, but many other processes are ongoing
How to find names:
Departmental websites, mass media, social media, websites of other civil society organisations in your country, UN Country Team contacts are all published.
There are 17 goals and 169 targets. I will give you just a couple of examples. The UN 2030 Agenda includes:
Declaration
Vision of the world in 2030
Sustainable Development Goals (17 goals, 169 targets)
What the world needs to achieve by 2030 – from eradicating poverty to good education, sustainable cities, peace and justice
Means of Implementation
Who is going to pay, and how much it will cost
Follow-up and review – including global indicators (to be finalised and agreed in March 2016)
How we know which countries are on track in meeting the Goals
http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
11.4 Strengthen efforts to protect and safeguard the world’s cultural and natural heritage
16.10 Ensure public access to information and protect fundamental freedoms, in accordance with national legislation and international agreements
Every country is being asked to make sure that everyone knows about the SDGs, and how they apply nationally and locally. Librarians can help.
Make sure that everyone that visits libraries knows about the Goals
Implement the goals in your own library. Live up to the promises of the Lyon Declaration. Libraries can:
Provide information on basic rights and entitlements, public services, environment, health, education, work opportunities, and public expenditure that supports local communities and people to guide their own development.
Serve as a public place to bring together stakeholders and people to discuss development solutions
Preserve and provide ongoing access to cultural heritage and government information
Offer training and skills to help people access and understand the information and services most helpful to them.
Provide public access to ICT and communications infrastructure
As for the overall process, what comes next?
There is a lot yet to be decided in the 2030 Agenda. The UN will evaluate progress towards meeting the SDGs every four years. The indicators that will measure progress towards meeting the SDGs are still being discussed.
But by providing the services that people need, and advocating for our place in the 2030 Agenda, we can show that libraries make an essential contribution to everyone’s development. Thank you.
