This new study from IFLA sheds light on where libraries around the world are focused in their advocacy, and how they are working to achieve their goals. It is designed to be the catalyst for conversations about how we can strengthen the voice of libraries, globally, regionally and nationally.
In preparation for global meetings on the SDGs in July and September, IFLA has been active at the regional level. The message: that at all levels, and across the 2030 Agenda, libraries and access to information are indispensable for progress.
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.
IFLA is encouraging the library community across the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region to share their views on a draft declaration on libraries, access to information and development. This, the result of close collaboration between IFLA and the Hernán Santa Cruz Library of the UN Economic Commission for LAC, aims to send a strong, unified message to ministers in 2019.
Libraries promote an inclusive model of development by giving all individuals the information they need to learn, find work, and live healthy lives. This requires the right policies not just globally, but also at the regional, national and local levels. This is the message IFLA will be bringing to the Forum of the Countries of Latin America and the Caribbean on Sustainable Development 2018, held in Santiago de Chile, Chile, on 17-20 April 2018.