Building Knowledge Societies

Abstract

James D. Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank Group, discussed the global knowledge partnership, which is central to the Bank’s work. The digital revolution brings opportunity. Knowledge can be transferred from developed to developing countries, but also that developing countries can exchange knowledge; that the knowledge learned in developing countries can come forward on an equal basis with the knowledge of development agencies, and in fact, change that knowledge, contour it, describe it in a way that can be effective and useful in the countries in development. Now, people in villages throughout the world having access to knowledge, to experience, to advice, and to guidance in real time. The Bank is looking at the prospect of putting together a global development gateway in which information is garnered from governments, federal and state and local, from civil society, from the private sector, and from multilateral and bilateral institutions.