SDG 4: Quality Education | SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure | SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
Institutions: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology | Ministry of Education | Ministry of Tribal Affairs
I. Vision and Urgency: The Digital Survival Imperative
UNESCO’s Global Roadmap for Multilingualism in the Digital Era provides a strategic framework to ensure all language users, particularly those speaking endangered and vulnerable languages, can thrive in the digital age. The core urgency is driven by the risk of unprecedented language loss and the erosion of cultural knowledge, exacerbated by the speed of AI and emerging technologies.
Long-Term Vision: A future where Language Technologies (LT) are developed based on community-driven decision-making regarding deployment, use, and data governance, ensuring every language is valued and empowered.
Fundamental Principle: The roadmap recognizes that language rights are integral to human rights, aiming to empower individuals to use and preserve their language in digital spaces.
Alignment: This work directly contributes to the International Decade of Indigenous Languages (IDIL 2022-2032) and reinforces UNESCO’s commitment to countering digital exclusion.
II. Strategic Objectives and Core Policy Demands
To achieve an inclusive, open, and diverse digital ecosystem, the roadmap focuses on six key strategic objectives:
Universal and Equitable Access: Drive widespread adoption of Language Technologies by ensuring affordable access for all languages.
Community-Driven Solutions: Advance LT solutions that are tailored to the specific needs and decisions of language communities.
Ethical Digital Governance: Establish governance frameworks that integrate multilingualism, guarantee access, and uphold principles of ethical data handling, with particular emphasis on data sovereignty.
Focused Support: Create targeted mechanisms for endangered and vulnerable languages, including Indigenous, signed, and haptic languages, to ensure their digital visibility and vitality.
Technological Readiness: Continuously monitor emerging technologies (e.g., AI, quantum computing) to leverage their potential for advancing multilingualism.
III. Five Priority Action Areas
The strategy is implemented through detailed action items across five integrated priority areas:
Policy Advancement: Mandate active engagement with communities , legislate for universal digital language access , formalize data sovereignty protections , and require Linguistic Impact Assessments in technology regulation.
Language Community Involvement: Establish clear mechanisms for community leadership in LT development , and support community-driven data governance models that control the collection, storage, and use of their linguistic data.
Capacity Building: Equip language communities with digital resources and connectivity , and develop comprehensive training programs for linguists, IT developers, and educators to utilize and adapt LT.
Research, Development, and Industry: Invest in innovation and prioritize dedicated resources for under-represented languages. Industry must adopt openly licensed and FAIR data practices and drive research for data-scarce environments.
Public Awareness and Advocacy: Launch broad campaigns for digital linguistic equality , collaborate with media to spotlight success stories, and advocate for linguistic diversity in education curricula.
IV. Policy Relevance and Stakeholder Responsibility
This framework demands a fundamental shift in governance toward co-regulation, requiring coordinated action from all stakeholders.
Significance: It is a direct call for increased fiscal priority and legislative reform to prevent unprecedented language loss, which would otherwise severely hinder technological creativity and innovation.
Government Role: Governments must be leaders in national strategy development, ensuring the integration of LT into public services and education, and fostering strategic partnerships among all stakeholders.
Follow the full update here: Global Roadmap for Multilingualism in the Digital Era: Advancing the Role of Language Technologies - UNESCO