18/03/2008

The Open Training Platform (OTP - http://opentraining.unesco-ci.org) is collaborating with ALISON to bring its online learning courses to the UNESCO global audience. The OTP is a UNESCO initiative to facilitate access to training materials and resources developed by development stakeholders at a global level. ALISON has committed to this collaboration with the OTP because it is clear that innovations such as the OTP offer huge potential to transform and improve education generally across the developing world.

The inspiration behind the creation of ALISON was Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states in part that "Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free..." ALISON is thus committed to enabling individuals across the globe to access our high-quality online learning materials for free. The OTP offers another important channel to assist us in fulfilling this mission.

As a signatory of the Cape Town Declaration (http://www.capetowndeclaration.org), a dynamic effort to make learning and teaching materials available online to everyone, ALISON is delighted that we can once again contribute to helping the OTP and the Open Education movement in general grow.

ABOUT UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO - http://www.unesco.org) was founded on the 16th of November 1945. Its ambitious goal is nothing less than to build peace in the minds of men. UNESCO works to create the conditions for genuine dialogue, based upon respect for shared values and the dignity of each civilization and culture.

About the Open Training Platform
The Communication and Information Sector of UNESCO has been developing the Open Training Platform (http://opentraining.unesco-ci.org). The objective behind this platform is to empower trainers and trainees with free resources, offer them a structured collaborative space to share their training, and also to promote and value "open" training materials which are freely and openly accessible for non-commercial purposes such as teaching, learning and research.