Focus Area

Access to trustworthy and reliable information is a necessary condition for well-governed and peaceful societies. It allows for informed public debate and constructive public discourse. We now live in a world where huge volumes of information spread quickly without checks or controls and where information is ranked based on its ability to grab attention, rather than its accuracy or potential negative impacts. 

Across the world, we have seen false, manipulated and misleading information overturn political and social norms and values, threaten human rights and endanger lives. It undermines the social contract and erodes trust in democratic processes and institutions. It is a potent catalyst of conflict and division, sometimes to explosive effect. It prevents informed decision-making and collective agreement on truth and fact. It impedes our ability to address the immense global challenges now facing us. This is a global problem yet it is those countries that lack robust institutions and strong independent media that are potentially most vulnerable.   

Under the 2022-25 Strategic Plan, UNDP has renewed its commitment to protect and promote access to reliable information on issues of public concern. This includes countering information pollution in all its forms. The Global Policy Centre for Governance has been leading UNDP’s Information Integrity global portfolio since 2020, producing research and policy and programme guidance.  

The objectives of this work are three-fold: firstly we work to improve the coherence, consistency and quality of UNDP’s information integrity programming; secondly, we ensure that the realities of information ecosystems in the contexts where UNDP operates are taken into consideration in global forums and dialogues and thirdly, we aim to close the research and knowledge gaps in this emerging field, to improve understanding of and responses to information integrity challenges in diverse contexts.