Timed to coincide with the celebrations of this year’s International Day for the Universal Access to Information, IFLA has published the first part of a review of the treatment of knowledge and information in delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals, based on the 38 Voluntary National Reviews submitted by UN Member States this year. 

When the 2030 Agenda was agreed ten years ago, governments already recognised the role of information in contributing to successful sustainable development policies.

The Agenda set the goal of promoting knowledge societies, included a specific target for access to information, and had a range of others highlighting how access to and capacity to use knowledge could help in different areas.

Nonetheless, these references were relatively scattered, appearing in only around half of the SDGs, and with the focus on building knowledge and information capacities restricted to developing countries.

Ten years on, it is time to ask whether governments have paid any attention to these references, and indeed whether as they have turned to implementation of the goals, they have recognised a wider or deeper role for knowledge and information.

The report released today – the first of two parts – answers both of these questions positively.

Based on an analysis of references to knowledge and information in 2025 Voluntary National Reviews, it is clear that across the agenda, governments have shown that they understand that knowledge and information matter, going beyond just the SDGs where reference was made in the original 2030 Agenda.

Moreover, the analysis also points to a rich and diverse set of dimensions of the relationship between knowledge and information on the one hand, and sustainable development on the other. Crucially, these dimensions appear across the SDGs, indicating that there is scope to look at more concerted, joined-up approaches to delivery.

In practice, this means a higher profile for knowledge infrastructures and institutions, but above all professionals, who bring the relevant skills and understanding to ensure that knowledge and information are working for development.

Part two of the study will continue the analysis, looking in more depth at these different dimensions, and how they relate to the work of libraries at all levels, around the world.

Access part one on our repository.