The IFLA IGO Licensing Overview report explores the landscape of licensing practices among intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and their publications. It analyzes the restrictive and permissive licensing policies across 58 IGOs, including UN agencies, development banks, and regional organizations. The report highlights the inconsistencies in licensing practices within and between IGOs, particularly regarding the use of Creative Commons (CC) licenses. While a few organizations such as the OECD have recently adopted open access policies, many others, such as the United Nations, maintain restrictive policies that limit the reuse of their materials. The report calls for greater harmonization of licensing practices to promote open access and reuse of publicly funded research and materials. Key recommendations include encouraging the adoption of standard open licenses (such as CC-BY), simplifying licensing policies, and improving the availability of clear copyright information. The report concludes that while some progress has been made, much remains to be done to improve access to knowledge and research from IGOs, particularly in alignment with the UN’s knowledge management initiatives under the UN 2.0 agenda.
Authors
- Published in
- Netherlands
