Our Common Humanity in the Information Age. Principles and Values for Development

ABOUT THE BOOK 
Sarbuland Khan, Executive Coordinator, Global Alliance for Information 
and Communication Technologies and Development (GAID), United 
Nations
I can say without hyperbole that the event on “Our Common Humanity in the Information 
Age” was special in many ways. We gathered together a truly unique set of diverse, high-
level participants and an audience composed of people from all walks of life. This forum 
provided a rare opportunity to step back and take a global view, highlighting the 
foundations that constitute the core values of our common humanity that underlie much 
of the work of the entire UN system. It also presented an opportunity to portray the link 
between those values and the concrete Millenium Development Goals (MDGs), which, in 
essence, form the roadmap for achieving our common humanity. It is our hope to make 
this event a force for mobilizing values for our common humanity for a better future .
An ambitious agenda, a range of issues that spans the whole of the United Nations 
Millennium Declaration, adopted by heads of state in the year 2000, setting out “the role 
of the United Nations in the twenty-first century,” as well as of many of the other 
conferences and summits convened by the UN system were covered.
The meeting also aimed to revive the spirit of cooperation through:
§ Sending a message that the global community is one family with common values and 
promoting the concept of equity and fairness by creating a level playing field through 
widespread use of ICT.
§ Strengthening the United Nations as a positive force for good, based on inclusion 
and partnership.
§ Promoting global public goods, especially access to information and ICT – whose 
benefits reach across borders, generations and populations, including equity, 
eradication of diseases, environmental sustainability and peace and security.
§ Building awareness that the ecological balance of the planet is fragile and is easily 
compromised by common threats to mankind, such as poverty, climate change, 

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global warming, natural disasters, famine and conflicts and, if there is no effort to 
deal with these threats, our common destiny is at stake.
The meeting elicited strong and widespread interest among diverse stakeholders, most of 
them exposed to the values and MDGs for the first time. It was seen as an 
encouragement, promotion and revival of the idea of dialogue, communication, mutual 
respect, tolerance and cooperation among peoples of different origins and cooperation 
against threats to humanity, such as poverty, natural and man-made disasters, terrorism, 
wars, conflicts and diseases, with a view to facilitating global dialogue and forming 
partnerships. The stakeholders addressed broadly the challenges of globalization and the 
common destiny of human beings as neighbours on this planet and identified the global 
challenges that need to be addressed with common values and shared goals embodied in 
the United Nations Development Agenda. We have aimed to bring a truly diverse set of 
viewpoints and experiences to the podium in order to stretch our minds and inspire us to 
strive harder to fulfill the values we have been challenged to uphold.
The eminent speakers , who represent the areas of science, technology, arts, architecture, 
entertainment, sports, literature, religion, policy making, and young thinkers, discussed 
the issues together. The book therefore captures the spirit of diverse views as expressed 
by the speakers that paint a colorful yet composite picture of our common humanity. 

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