The following eighteen Member States have been elected as new members of the Intergovernmental Council for the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) joining those thirteen that have been elected at the 32nd session of the General Conference: Afghanistan, Argentina, Barbados, Burkina Faso, Croatia, Democratic Republic of Korea, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Haiti, Israel, Netherlands, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay.

For the Intergovernmental Council for the Information for All Programme (IFAP) the following thirteen Member States will join those other thirteen that have been elected at the 32nd session of the General Conference: Canada, China, Congo, Czech Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Jamaica, Malaysia, Sudan and the United Republic of Tanzania.

Both IPDC and IFAP are instrumental in UNESCO’s action to empower people through the free flow of ideas by word and image, and by access to information and knowledge.

IPDC promotes free and pluralistic media with high ethical and professional standards in developing countries and the countries in transition. Through media development IPDC helps strengthen communicative & analytical skills of the people and their participation in democratic governance. The priority is given to the projects promoting press freedom and media pluralism, development of community media, enhancing professional capacity and building partnerships for media improvements

IFAP provides a framework for international co-operation and international and regional partnerships. It supports the development of common strategies, methods and tools to build inclusive, open and pluralistic knowledge societies and to narrow the gap between the information rich and the information poor.