Strategic Function: To deliver IISD's knowledge base to a global audience of decision-makers, enriched by the best of other sources of sustainable development information, anchoring and integrated with the knowledge of its partners in the knowledge networks.

Achievements and Highlights

• Our research into effective communications strategies, network operations and partnership management is strengthening the performance of our strategic objective areas. In the lead-up to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), we worked closely with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD) to hold an international e-consultation on partnerships for sustainable development. Findings from this dialogue were shared with the Regional and International Networking Group (RING), leading to further work on strengthening communications in research partnerships. We continue to be approached by organizations and networks around the world for input on how to manage collaborative relationships to fast track sustainable development.

• As input to the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), the Knowledge Communications (KC) team led an institute-wide review of the world's 10 successes and 10 failures in the decade since the Rio Earth Summit. Our snapshot, entitled Ten Plus Ten, noted important, incremental changes toward the achievement of sustainable development, particularly at local levels. But we also observed that there are serious shortcomings, reflecting, in many cases, the lack of political will and the lack of effective implementation strategies to honour commitments made in Rio. Ten Plus Ten served to open debate in the Canadian media, nationally and provincially, with radio interviews and excerpts published in the press. Ten Plus Ten and an updated Sustainable Development Timeline are available online at http://www.iisd.org/briefcase/. Our international review served to position ourselves to work with the Policy Research Initiative of the Government of Canada. PRI contracted IISD to identify the leading sustainable development policy research priorities in Canada. This work continues into 2003.

The Knowledge Communications Team continues to foster good communications practice throughout IISD, helping staff to get their messages out to those they most want to inform and engage.

• In previous years we have focused on the practical application of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to help NGOs, in particular from the South and transitional countries, to communicate their knowledge more effectively. This year, we began to look at the broader issue of how ICTs can support—and also hinder—the transition to sustainability. Two substantive interventions on this issue were made in Johannesburg: one through a panel session organized by IISD and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; and one through the Digital Opportunities Dialogue organized by IUCN – The World Conservation Union. In our follow-up, we received support from Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) to bring together a group of young analysts from the South and transitional countries to explore, in greater depth, the connections between the information society and sustainable development.

• IISD continues to demonstrate its commitment to the next generation of decision-makers. Once again, our Young Canadian Leaders for a Sustainable Future program placed 35 young Canadians in partner organizations around the world, with the support of Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC)/Arctic Council. We celebrated the accomplishments of this program in Johannesburg, hosting a reception with about 30 former interns all involved in WSSD activities.

In the past year, IISD has been preparing overviews of global and national advances towards sustainable development and has been examining the relationship between the emerging “information society” and sustainable development.

• We link our youth work with our interest in the information society through Youth Creating Digital Opportunities (YCDO). In cooperation with the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP) and TakingITGlobal (TIG), IISD established the YCDO Coalition in 2002 as a follow up to previous interventions on Bridging the Digital Divide. This growing group of organizations seeks to realize the potential of young people as leaders in using information and communications technologies (ICTs) to achieve more sustainable development in their communities and around the world. In 2002-2003, the YCDO Coalition focused its efforts on engaging youth in the preparatory process for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). At the international level, IISD provided strategic and logistical support to the WSIS Youth Caucus. Laying the groundwork for effective grassroots youth ICT-for-development activities, IISD also recruited a young woman from Zimbabwe to serve as the GKP Youth Focal Point intern helping youth to connect with opportunities for mentoring, fundraising and recognition. These young people are increasingly forming a global community of leaders committed to using the tools of the information society to ensure opportunity, empowerment and inclusion for all. To learn more, visit http://ycdo.net/