Last month, a team of librarians from around the world engaged with governments at the UN in New York, building understanding of the role of libraries in development, and creating new links with decision-makers - including a national president! This article shares lessons and reflections from the team who attended.
A strong delegation of libraries engaged actively at the United Nations High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development. In addition to building links with senior decision-makers, they gained valuable insights to share with colleagues, contributing to building a more sustainable library field.
We're already well into the United Nations High-Level Political Forum in New York, with our team of librarians from four different continents hard at work ensuring that governments understand the potential of libraries to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals. But what goals did they have in coming to the Forum?
IFLA has prepared analysis of the set of Voluntary National Reviews of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals being presented at this year's UN High-Level Political Forum. It has been another year of above-average numbers of references to libraries, linked to a wider range of SDGs than ever before.
Libraries are well represented at this year's UN High-Level Political Forum! With librarians from four different contents, including six countries which are currently undertaking Voluntary National Reviews, we're in a great position to share experience from the ground, as well as the values that shape our field as a whole.
In the first of an occasional series focused on successful advocacy initiatives by libraries around the world, we look to Argentina, where a recent decision saw a commitment to funding community libraries for 50 years. To find out more about what was achieved, and how, we interviewed the Chair of IFLA's Regional Division Committee for Latin America and the Caribbean, Alejandro Santa.
Join our Spanish-language panel on how to increase the impact of access to information initiatives in Latin America, notably through libraries, as part of the International Day for the Universal Access to Information, to be held at 17:00 UTC on Tuesday 28 September.
Library representatives from 28 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean came together on 24 May in Buenos Aires for the first step in a new phase in IFLA’s work to build a stronger and more united library field.
With the agreement of the United Nations 2030 Agenda in 2015, the world’s governments underlined the importance of access to information as a driver of development. The 2019 IFLA President’s Meeting, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 23 May, explored how libraries, as guarantors of this access, can be motors of change, and saw a call to action to all participating, in person and online.
On 22 May, Ministers of culture and their representatives from 12 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean affirmed their commitment to the UN 2030 Agenda, and to the power of libraries and access to information to achieve it, by signing the Buenos Aires Declaration.