On 7 September 2026, the National IFAP Committee of Ukraine celebrated the Programme’s 25th anniversary with a conference at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA) in Ukraine focused on the future of inclusive and equitable knowledge societies.
On the 25th anniversary of IFAP’s establishment, we take this opportunity to revitalize the Programme and reshape its role as a think tank, standard-setter, digital capacity builder and catalyst for digital cooperation. One of the anniversary objectives is to utilize National Advocacy events to promote IFAP’s priorities, and today’s conference does exactly that.
Mariya GabrielAssistant Director-General for Communication and Information, UNESCO
UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, Mariya Gabriel, delivered opening remarks alongside the President of NaUKMA, Serhiy Kvit, and Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Mariana Betsa. Ms Gabriel also thanked the initiative of Ukraine’s IFAP National Committee to organize this conference—the first in-person event commemorating IFAP’s 25th anniversary.
The conference tackled the theme, “25th Anniversary of UNESCO’s Information for All Programme (IFAP): People and Information in a World of Global Challenges and Opportunities”. Within the panels, participants from IFAP Working Groups and the IFAP National Committee of Ukraine made important contributions to the discussion, with Viktoriia Romaniuk—Chair of the IFAP Information Ethics Working Group—moderating a roundtable on Media and Information Literacy in the Age of AI.
There is not one digital divide, but many — and with AI, those divides are multiplying: who has computing power, data and researchers; who can develop, evaluate and regulate these systems; and whose languages and cultures are represented. This is exactly where the 25th anniversary of IFAP meets our moment. IFAP’s six priorities remind us that technology must serve human development; that people need the skills to navigate an algorithmic world; that our documentary heritage must survive the digital transition; that knowledge has value only if people can reach it; and that there is no true knowledge society while whole parts of humanity remain invisible in the technologies that produce it.
Guilherme CanelaDirector of the Division for Digital Inclusion and Policies and Digital Transformation, UNESCO
IFAP’s Secretary Guilherme Canela de Souza Godoi engaged in a panel discussing Access to Information in the Digital Age and Striking a Fair Balance between Public and Private Interests. He presented UNESCO’s commitment to helping people build the capacity to benefit fully from the digital world. He also shared UNESCO’s work on AI governance: Global Toolkit on AI and the Rule of Law, Governing AI: Nine Emerging Approaches for Lawmakers, and Smarter, Smaller, Stronger: Resource-Efficient Generative AI and the Future of Digital Transformation.
read more: https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/kyiv-commemorates-ifaps-25th-anniversary?hub=701
