Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D)
Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D) is a regional center for academic scholarship, research and policy analysis on access to knowledge for development in Egypt and the Arab world.
The phrase "Access to Knowledge", or A2K, refers to two main concepts. First, the term "knowledge" is understood to broadly refer to data, information, tools, inventions, literature, scholarship, art, software, popular media and other expressions of human inquiry and understanding. Second, the demand for "access" is also broadly intended—pertaining not only to the right to access these products as consumers, but also the right to participate as producers in their creation, manipulation and extension. The A2K discourse promotes a critical perspective on the maximalist trend of intellectual property and revives attention to the virtues of openness in knowledge.
The A2K paradigm falls at the heart of the development discourse. Access to Knowledge represents a way to unlock trapped economic value, which will inevitably lead to new and expanded business opportunities, where both equity and efficiency can be improved by expanding distribution of knowledge goods and tools. Access to Knowledge is a demand for democratic participation, for global inclusion and for economic justice. Access to Knowledge is therefore an integral component of sustainable human development in its wider sense. This is the rationale behind the establishment of A2K4D.
A2K4D is the first center for research on A2K for Development in the Arab world, intended to fill the present vacuum in academic scholarship on the subject in the region. A2K4D promotes rigorous research meant to further conceptualize and investigate the economic and legal issues confronting access to knowledge in Egypt and the region. A2K4D research will help raise awareness of the A2K paradigm at the policy and academic levels. It offers empirical analysis of how public policy does and should operate — in areas as diverse as ICTs, software, health, trade, education, culture, agriculture—to promote access to knowledge for sustainable human development. A2K4D’s policy-oriented research will provide Arab policy makers, negotiators and international representatives with well-researched IP alternatives, recognizing the relationship between knowledge and human development. This research would also help develop well thought of business models that address the tension between knowledge users and creators with the purpose of expanding both access and contribution to knowledge. Most importantly, such alternatives are devised using a bottom up approach that realistically addresses people’s needs, as opposed to regulations that are imposed top down without much sensitivity to the developmental realities of the region.
A2K4D will serve as a regional research hub, aiming at developing a strong community of academic researchers and partners from academia, civil society, the industry, policy bodies and other stakeholders. A2K4D will work towards capacity building among Egyptian and other Arab A2K stakeholders, developing a regional network of A2K scholars while working in close collaboration with the overall global A2K movement and international partners.
A2K4D is a founding member of the Access to Knowledge Global Academy (A2KGA) in collaboration with the Information Society Project of Yale Law School and partners from Argentina, Brazil, China, Ethiopia, India, South Africa and the United States.
Contact
Access to Knowledge for Development Center (A2K4D)
School of Business
American University in Cairo
New Cairo Campus, AUC Avenue
PO Box 74 New Cairo 11835
Room 1011, Economics Department, Abdullatif Jameel Building
Email: a2k4d@aucegypt.edu
Director: Dr. Nagla Rizk
Email: naglarzk@aucegypt.edu