Azerbaijan UNESCO IFAP Committee holds first meeting
![Azerbaijan UNESCO IFAP Committee holds first meeting](https://mincom.gov.az/resized/resize879/center/pages/1802/1688541573542.jpg)
The Azerbaijani Committee of the UNESCO Information for All Programme (IFAP) held its first meeting at the Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies (MTCHT). The meeting was attended by employees of government organizations represented in the National Committee, including Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population, State Agency for Public Service and Social Innovations under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, State Committee on Family, Women and Children Affairs, State Tourism Agency, National Archives Department, Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences, Science Development Fund and Intellectual Property Agency.
Speaking at the meeting, Chairman of the Azerbaijan IFAP Committee, Head of Department of Innovative Development of Information Society and Electronic Governance of the MTCHT Rashad Azizov noted the importance of the IFAP programme in terms of promotion and outreach of Azerbaijan abroad, reported on the work done in 2018 for its implementation and upcoming tasks.
He said that the IFAP is a unique intergovernmental UNESCO programme established in 2001. The main objective of the IFAP is to simplify access to information in member countries. A total of 59 countries have IFAP National Committees. The programme covers 6 priority issues – “Information access”, “Information for development”, “Information ethics”, “Information literacy”, “Information preservation” and “Multilingualism in Cyberspace”.
Rashad Azizov noted that the IFAP National Committee has been functioning in Azerbaijan since 2008. A decision on the functioning of the Azerbaijan IFAP Committee within the MTCHT was adopted in 2018. On September 11, 2018, the Chairman of the National Committee of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO approved new regulations of the Azerbaijani Committee of the Information for All Programme of the UNESCO under the National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO, and on January 29, 2019, the Action Plan of the Azerbaijani Committee of the UNESCO IFAP for 2019-2021, prepared by MTCHT and coordinated with relevant authorities, was approved.
During the meeting, there were discussions on the work to be done for the implementation of measures envisaged in the Action Plan.