The Intergovernmental Council of the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) elected yesterday its new Chair, Rapporteur and six Vice-Chairs that will serve as the Bureau of the Programme for the next two years.
The Bureau is responsible for the selection, approval and allocation of funds to media development projects submitted to the IPDC by grassroots organizations worldwide, as well as planning the organization of work of the IPDC Council.
Ms Anna Brandt, Ambassador of Sweden to UNESCO, was re-elected as Chairperson of the IPDC Bureau. In her acceptance speech she underlined IPDC’s relevance and importance.
I will seek to ensure that the IPDC intergovernmental Council continues to provide an important platform for setting standards and developing strategic responses to new media development challenges.
Mr Peter Denk from Namibia was re-elected as Rapporteur. The Netherlands, the Dominican Republic, Mongolia, Madagascar, Lebanon, and the Russian Federation were elected as Vice-Chairs.
UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, Mr Tawfik Jelassi, congratulated the new IPDC Council and Bureau members on their election. He also congratulated all Member States for approving during the General Conference the revision of the IPDC Statutes and for adopting the Windhoek +30 Declaration.
In 2021, as the world was fighting disinformation about COVID-19 and was in desperate need for verified information, the crucial role that independent professional journalism plays in our daily lives became more obvious than ever. This underlines the importance of IPDC’s work over 40 years to promote media in developing countries.
The elections of the Bureau follow the election of 18 new members to the wider, 38-member IPDC Intergovernmental Council, which were selected on 18 November during UNESCO’s 41st session of the General Conference.
The Intergovernmental Council is elected taking into account the need to ensure equitable geographical distribution and appropriate rotation. The Council normally meets in a regular plenary session once every two years.
The newly elected Member States will be part of the Intergovernmental Council for the next four years until the 43rd session of the General Conference. Out of the 18 newly elected Member States, eight have been re-elected, namely: Sweden, Lithuania, the Russian Federation, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Namibia. The new Member States joining the Council are France, Czechia, Columbia, Uruguay, Mongolia, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Togo, Oman, and Qatar.
To find more information about the IPDC Intergovernmental Council and its composition click here.