Tag Archives: HLPF

The 10-Minute International Librarian #96: Explain how you drive transformation

The United Nations’ High-Level Political Forum is meeting this week in New York. One of the words on everyone’s lips is ‘transformation’.

Given the huge progress still needed in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, this isn’t a surprise. We need to do things very differently in order to avoid falling short.

The alternatives – business as usual or only incremental improvements – aren’t enough.

And so ministers, officials and experts are focused on identifying opportunities and sharing ideas on new approaches that will have a radical positive impact.

Of course, information – and so libraries – can be transformative, given its potential to improve decision-making, enable innovation, and support democratic participation.

So for our 96th 10-Minute International Librarian exercise, explain how you drive transformation.

What activities are you doing – or could you do – that really allow people and communities to change for the better?

Think ambitious – transformation is a big word – and set out the series of steps between what you are doing and the difference you can make.

You can take a look at some of the great campaigns that already exists – Libraries Transform in the US, and Libraries Change Lives in Australia for a start – for ideas, but make your example relevant to your context.

Share your ideas in the comments below.

Good luck!

 

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! Key Initiative 1.1: Show the power of libraries in delivering the Sustainable Development Goals. 

You can view our other posts in this series using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the comments box below!

What Makes Libraries Unique in Achieving… SDG 8

DA2I means being able to find – and seize – new opportunities for work and entrepreneurshipSustainable Development Goal 8 is the second of the SDGs to be explored this year. It focuses on promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

Through their work to provide access to information in communities, including to some of their most vulnerable members, libraries can be a gateway to opportunity. Both indirectly – through promoting inclusion and wellbeing – and directly through training and job-search support – our institutions can make a real contribution to delivering on SDG 8.

Labour and employment ministries therefore have an interest in effective libraries.

But what arguments can you use to convince them?

Here are three ideas showing why libraries have a unique role in achieving SDG 8:

  • Because employment schemes only work if people know about them: like any market, the job market only works when people know about the opportunities out there. Yet half the world’s population does not have internet access or aren’t confident online. Libraries are not only places where people can connect, but also can receive support and guidance on where to find possibilities to help them find jobs.
  • Because those who need support most can be the hardest to reach: for many, going to a job centre is associated with stigma. Others, especially those from marginalised groups, feel uneasy going into official buildings, or even are not entitled to formal support. Libraries are often seen differently, with people readier to use them. As such, they can provide an excellent place to provide services to many of the most vulnerable in society.
  • Because skills matter: developing new and more advanced skills is a necessity for everyone, not only in order to respond to technological and economic change, but also to find better quality, more fulfilling work. Yet those who have left school risk can risk struggling to reconnect to education. Libraries not only offer training themselves, but can be a gateway to other forms of adult and non-formal education.

For more see the chapter on SDG 8 in the 2019 Development and Access to Information (DA2I) Report by Stefania Lapolla Cantoni, Researcher at cetic.br.

What Makes Libraries Unique in Achieving… SDG 4

This is the first of a series of blogs for the 2019 High Level Political Forum, looking at the different SDGs in focus this year.

Sustainable Development Goal 4DA2I means being able to learn, grow and develop, wherever you are, whatever your age is the first of the SDGs to be explored this year. It focuses on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.

For many libraries – not least school and university ones – it is the basis for all of their work, from story time to advanced information literacy. Libraries play a vital role, either within institutions, or in complement to them.

But how to explain this role to policy-makers and others?

Here are three ideas for arguments that you can use to show why libraries are unique in achieving SDG4:

1) Because literacy is a gateway to learning: reading a blog like this, it can be difficult to imagine what it’s like not to be literate. Without literacy, so many means of learning, earning, and accessing information are closed. Libraries have a very strong track record in this area, through supporting literacy (even from the youngest age) and encouraging a love of reading which has proven impacts on overall academic performance.

2) Because learning doesn’t stop when you leave school: while basic education is an essential step, everyone needs to keep on learning throughout their lives. Changes in the wider world may force them to find a new job or adapt to new technologies. Changes in their own lives mean that their needs and priorities change. Libraries provide a place where anyone, at any age, can learn for themselves, and often get involved in or access wider training opportunities.

3) Because spaces matter: the internet has opened up great new possibilities for people to access learning, with new content and applications developed all the time. Yet it is undeniable that people also benefit from having dedicated spaces and staff to help them develop new skills. Libraries are ideal spaces for this, given their historic focus on popular education, and their familiarity to communities.

For more see the chapter on SDG4 in the 2019 Development and Access to Information Report (DA2I) by Dr Katarina Popovic, Secretary-General of the International Council on Adult Education (ICAE).

Words of the SDGs: Resilience

As highlighted in a previous blog, the United Nations 2030 Agenda can seem jargon-heavy. As in any big, institutional process, certain keywords emerge, and take on a power they may not have in the outside world.

While it may not seem natural, being able to use these words in library advocacy can be a great way of gaining attention among the people in government whose job is to work on the SDGs.

One such word is ‘resilience’. In the world of the SDGs, this is an important concept reflecting a shift in thinking about development from dealing with the consequences of change to helping people, communities and nations prepare and respond to it themselves, as far as possible.

Resilience

This stems firstly from the idea that we need to defend everyone’s right to development – i.e. that everyone should have the resources and possibilities to improve their own lives. It also comes from the acceptance that at a time of rapid technological, economic, social and environmental change, it is no longer enough to try and determine solutions that last for a long time, but to build in the ability to evolve at all levels.

Resilience is an important word for library advocacy around the SDGs for three reasons highlighted during discussions on Day 4 of the High Level Political Forum.

Libraries as Critical Community Assets to Protect

A session on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction focused on how best to prepare for and respond to disasters, both natural and man-made. It provided an opportunity to set out the place of libraries, both as critical community institutions that need to be covered by risk reduction plans (in order to limit damage), but also as part of recovery efforts.

Shoko Arakaki, UNISDR Chief of Branch, Partnerships, Inter-governmental process and Inter-agency cooperation

Shoko Arakaki, UNISDR Chief of Branch, Partnerships, Inter-governmental process and Inter-agency cooperation

As set out in the IFLA briefing on the Sendai Framework, libraries often contain materials which are invaluable to their communities. With heritage an important driver of community cohesion, identity and potentially jobs, its loss can mean serious long-term damage. Libraries therefore need to be covered by government planning and investment, a point welcomed by the panelists in the session at the UN.

Libraries as Secondary Emergency Service

Yet libraries can also be crucial in the days and weeks after a disaster hits. There are many examples of libraries acting as refuges in times of crisis, providing electricity, connectivity, or simply a space of calm for people in situations of extreme stress.

While food and healthcare are clearly priorities, libraries are arguably a secondary emergency service, helping people move back towards normal life. As such, they can be key to the process of rebuilding.

Libraries Building Resilience for the Long Term

Libraries also contribute strongly to longer-term resilience through providing access to information. By this, they provide an answer not just to sudden disasters or crises, but to the trends and evolutions that are changing the way we live, learn, earn and interact with each other.

As highlighted in the Lyon Declaration and the Development and Access to Information report, information can empower people, giving them the tools not only to respond to change, but also identify and realise new opportunities. When everyone is a lifelong learner, and that communities, with access to information, can find ways to adapt and thrive, we are a long way to having achieved resilience.

‘Resilience’ is therefore a great concept for libraries to use in their own work around the SDGs, both in order to safeguard our own institutions in times of crisis, but also to highlight their role in creating sustainable cities and communities into the future.

Meaningful Access to Information: Essential, but not Easy

In its engagement with the United Nations, IFLA’s messaging centres on the importance of access to information. The type of information may vary – government, health, educational, communications – as may the specific objective, but the need for access is constant.

Address by María Soledad Cisternas Reyes at the Opening of the HLPF 2018

Address by María Soledad Cisternas Reyes at the Opening of the HLPF 2018

The opening session of this year’s High Level Political Forum saw a great explanation of why this is important. Ms. María Soledad Cisternas Reyes, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Disability and Accessibility highlighted how we are not addressing civil or political rights of millions of people who have no access to information.

Those without access had no way of knowing how to achieve social development and participate in society. The lack of efforts to provide meaningful, inclusive access to information left people unable to express their desires, realise their potential, and exercise their rights, not least the right to vote. Addressing the lack of access to information, for all, was vital in sustainable development.

HARD TO DELIVER (BUT THERE’S AN ANSWER)

Yet given how multi-faceted it is, delivering access to information is not necessarily easy. At a session organised by UNESCO in cooperation with the Permanent Mission of the Argentine Republic to the United Nations: “The role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the implementation of the targets in SDG 11” the focused on how to deliver truly smart cities.

Side event by UNESCO: "The role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the implementation of the targets in SDG 11"

Side event by UNESCO: “The role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the implementation of the targets in SDG 11”

Participants highlighted different elements of access – the need for transparency about government information, the need for connectivity and digital skills, the need for places where people could feel safe to go online, and the need to protect privacy yet at the same time understand community needs.

In short, access is about more than creating an app or creating a website, it also requires adapted, welcoming, and outcome-orientated support mechanisms.

Fortunately, libraries help on all of these fronts. As pre-existing, trusted public institutions, with trained, dedicated staff, ensuring citizen empowerment and participation, they provide access to information, internet connection, and digital skills, while protecting privacy.

IFLA’s intervention was very well received by the audience. To support the point, the example of Medellín (Colombia) was mentioned, where building libraries was the solution found by government in a city formerly marked by violence and exclusion. Libraries, and library parks, became community centres, chosen and owned by citizens as safe public gathering and learning spaces.

HARD TO MEASURE (BUT WE’RE WORKING ON IT)

Side event: “Monitoring peace, evaluating institutions, building capacity: A data-driven conversation on SDG 16 and its upcoming 2019 review SDGs Learning, Training and Practice”

Side event: “Monitoring peace, evaluating institutions, building capacity: A data-driven conversation on SDG 16 and its upcoming 2019 review SDGs Learning, Training and Practice”

At the side event: “Monitoring peace, evaluating institutions, building capacity: A data-driven conversation on SDG 16 and its upcoming 2019 review SDGs Learning, Training and Practice”, organized by UNITAR & IDEA, the issue of lack of proper indicators to monitor SDG 16 were again addressed as a big issue that needs to be solved.

Given next year’s HLPF focus in this SDG, participants proposed to organise a meeting for SDG 16 civil society stakeholders in preparation for this review. This idea was supported by the speakers as an idea worth exploring.

Side event: "SDGS on a local level"

Side event: “SDGS on a local level”

There were similar reflections on the need to find ways to measure progress towards sustainable development, especially at the local level (for example “SDGS on a local level”, organized by UNITAR, and “Practical Tools to Localize and Implement the SDG11 and the New Urban Agenda in Cities in the Developing World”, organized by UN-HABITAT.

Especially in the case of target 11.4 (safeguarding cultural heritage), this was particularly important, given that data needed to be collected locally to be meaningful. Yet for them to be comparable – to be able to get a global idea of progress – there had to be enough similarity in the methods used.

Side event: “Practical Tools to Localize and Implement the SDG11 and the New Urban Agenda in Cities in the Developing World”

Side event: “Practical Tools to Localize and Implement the SDG11 and the New Urban Agenda in Cities in the Developing World”

IFLA is addressing both of these challenges. In order to resolve the complexity of how to measure access to information, the Development and Access to Information (DA2I) report, produced in partnership with TASCHA, suggests a basket of indicators. These can be followed over time, and the interactions between the different components explored in order to understand what an effective set of policies for access to information could look like.

Similarly, through IFLA’s Library Map of the World, we are looking at developing capacity to collect library data locally, in a form that then can be explored globally. As this develops, it will become an essential tool in the analysis of the global library field and its contribution to development.