Building Knowledge Societies
Access, Empowerment and Governance - three crucial elements in building equitable and sustainable Knowledge Societies - formed the core themes of GKII. In the context of these themes, GKII also focused on the importance of empowering women and youth through the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and highlighted the role of the media in facilitating greater access to, and thereby promoting, knowledge for development.
In March 2000, over 1000 people from more than 120 countries met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to consider the special challenges facing communities and nations in the rapidly changing information and communications environment.
The second Global Knowledge Conference (GKII), hosted by the Government of Malaysia, focused on building knowledge societies through the process of identifying practical means to harness information, knowledge and new technologies to promote equity, fairness, social justice, empowerment and informed decision-making.
GKII Venues
GKII Resources
GKII's Global Knowledge Forum
GKII began with the Global Knowledge Forum. The Forum's program of plenary sessions, workshops, and study visits provided opportunities for government agencies, corporate organizations, NGOs, and international agencies to pool their knowledge and resources in a collective effort to build a strong framework for promoting knowledge for development and harnessing information and communication technologies within various communities.
The Women's Forum developed perspectives on gender equality and women's empowerment as they relate to ICTs. These perspectives served as input for the GKP Action Plan, the GKII Closing Plenary Report, and, later, to the Beijing +5 summit.
Download "Transcending the Gender Information Divide": a publication containing the Action Plan drawn up by the Women's Forum at GKII as well as proceedings of the Forum.
The Youth Forum , one of several activities in the GKII Youth Program , brought together young people
to examine their role in the future of knowledge societies.
The Youth Advisory Committee, originally formed for GKII, continues to advise GKP activities. Most
recently, the Committee participated in the consultation process for the GKP's recommendations to the DOT force.
Visit Youth Network to find out more about the role of Youth in promoting and using ICTs for development.
The Media Forum brought together 30 senior journalists from developing countries to examine the role the media plays in promoting knowledge for development and facilitating greater access to knowledge since the media - print, radio, TV, and web-based - hold perhaps the greatest potential for enabling greater access to knowledge and information in ways that can promote empowerment of all people and better, more transparent governance structures.
The Panos Institute facilitated the Media Forum. Initial exploration of the themes to be taken up at
the Forum was conducted through an online discussion open to all.
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GKP Action Summit
The Action Summit brought together current and prospective GKP member organizations and interested individuals to discuss the issues and challenges posed by the three themes of the conference.
The GKP Action Plan , developed by Action Summit Participants, became the strategic plan for the GKP to promote partnerships and concrete action among public, private, and nongovernmental sectors until its recent revision at the GKP's 2001 Annual General Meeting in Geneva.
GKII Action Plan
The 2000 Action Plan was developed during the GKII Action Summit, an integral part of the March 2000 GKII Conference. The Action Summit brought together GKP members and interested stakeholders to discuss the issues and challenges posed by the three conference themes of Access, Empowerment and Governance. Through various workshops and forums, GKII participants drafted a 2 to 3 year strategic Action Plan for promoting knowledge for development through partnerships of public, private and NGO actors
The GKII Action Plan is a strategic action plan for the Global Knowledge Partnership which was developed as a work in progress. The Action Plan, drafted in March 2000, is a reflection of discussions amongst, and decisions between, GKP members and other interested stakeholders at the GKII conference. The content of the Action Plan is drawn from GKII Action Summit (pdf, 23KB) various Working Group discussions, as well as the input from the Global Knowledge Forum, the Women's, Media and Youth Forum.
The 2000 GKP Action Plan aims to:
- Identify strategic action priorities for the GKP
- Propose mechanisms for delivery of the action items
- Identify priority projects and activities with indications of partner organizations interested in implementing them.
An Action Plan was updated during the 2001 GKP Annual Meeting in Geneva. View the Action Plan Update Summary (pdf, 20KB) for more details.
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GKII Knowledge Fair
The Knowledge Fair Showcased new technologies, tools and innovative strategies using knowledge and information to address development challenges, the fair consisted of:
- A kiosk-based exposition where applications and best practices in addressing the challenges and opportunities of promoting knowledge for development to encourage better access, empowerment and governance were showcased.
- Knowledge sharing sessions in which exhibitors and representatives of knowledge for development and ICT-based development initiatives were invited to illustrate lessons learnt in promoting knowledge in development to address the challenges and opportunities of access, empowerment and governance.
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Find out more about the second Global Knowledge Conference by visiting the GKII website
