Project description

Axel Volkery, research fellow at the Environmental Policy Research Centre, has been appointed member of the international advisory committee of IISDs “Information and Society and Sustainable Development: Next Generations Policy Directions Project”.

The overall objective of this international research project was to build research capacity and confidence among young researchers from developing countries to undertake applied policy research and analysis on harnessing the information society to achieve national sustainable development priorities. Until recently, few discussions have focused on harmonizing the visions of the emerging information society with the principles and priorities articulated by the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD). Meaningful discussions about national policy coherence between these processes have been limited by restricted thinking about the information society (IS) and sustainable development (SD). Each has emerged from a different community with a different vocabulary and process for determining national priorities. The specific objectives of the project has been as follows:

• engaging developing country researchers and policy-makers in national and international dialogues on the information society and sustainable development; and
• identifying and investigating priority areas for national policy and programme development at the convergence of sustainable development and the information society.

Axel Volkery provided advise regarding the formulation and implementation of national policies and programs for Sustainable Development and reviewed engagement strategies for national and international dialogues.