Since the 2002 OER Forum, UNESCO, with the continual support of Hewlett Foundation, has been promoting the benefices of OER and encouraging governments and stakeholders to develop and use OER.

The 2012 World OER Survey undertaken by UNESCO and COL on Governments’ OER Policies, has shown that fundamental problems remain, including very low levels of awareness by relevant stakeholders on the benefits of OER, and very low number of Governments or institutions adopting enabling OER policies.

After the adoption of the Paris Declaration in 2012 the challenge is to move from words to actions to deeper learning. UNESCO proposes, with all relevant stakeholders, to design and implement a series of global activities based on all the 10-points of the Declaration. In particular, UNESCO will hold advocacy and capacity building events and provide technical assistance to support the development of draft national and institutional policy recommendations based on the Paris OER Declaration, and identify national institutions to introduce the ICT CFT as a model for teacher training with a view to harnessing OER as a vehicle for deeper learning.

The expected outcomes of this projet are, first, a better general awareness of the benefices of OER, principally among political and instutional  stakeholders. The goal is also to provide  education professionals, teachers and teacher educators with training materials to improve their capacity to develop, use and share OER.

The final objective is the development of national OER policies in each partner country. These policies will take various forms and will focus on various aspects of education, depending on the national contexts of the partner countries. Their launches will also have global impact on the promotion and perception of OER: these experiences will constitutes references at international key-events, and will help to move further in the world of education.

The first step of the project, the Inception meeting, took place 26-27 March 2013 at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

The next phases will be national workshops in June, to draft OER policies within national frameworks and local requirements.