"It is the knowledge (not digital) divide that matters"

Abdul Waheed Khan, the Assistant Director General of UNESCO for Information and Communications, has published this article in A World of Science in the Developing World. He writes:

Thanks to advances in ICTs, knowledge has never been easier to process, share and analyse. Having said that, it is important to note that the issue is not 'how' but 'what' information is communicated. That is why I prefer to use the term 'knowledge divide' instead of 'digital divide".

The book is published by Nature magazine and is available freely on the Internet. It commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Third World Academy of Sciences and its work building the scientific capacity of developing nations.

Dr. Kahn's participation in this publication is symbolic of the importance of UNESCO to the development of science in the third world, and illustrates the close cooperation between UNESCO and other agencies building scientific capacity.