The Global Knowledge Index (GKI) is a partnership initiative between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Foundation (MBRF), first announced during the Knowledge Summit 2016, to highlight the strategic role of knowledge and the importance of developing objective and scientific tools to measure and evaluate knowledge.
The GKI aims at measuring knowledge as a broad concept that is intricately related to all aspects of modern human life, in a systematic approach that builds on solid conceptual and methodological principles, distinguished with:
- A theoretical foundation that relies on international and scientific literature, confirming the duality of knowledge and development, implying further that development is no more reliant on natural and financial resources as much as on knowledge and human resources, thus knowledge becomes the basis for achieving sustainable human development.
- A broad definition of knowledge as a composite multi-dimensional concept, which reveals in many direct and indirect forms, across different ancillary sectors including education, R&D, innovation, technology, economy, among others. This establishes for a methodological foundation to approach knowledge systematically and with more depth and detail, especially in examining existing knowledge gaps between the different sectors and within the same sector.
- A cumulative approach that relates to earlier experiences by others, and builds on it in a participatory framework with the involvement of experts and professionals from different countries and the advice of experts from leading international organisations in the field.
The GKI is composed of six sectoral indices: Pre-University Education; Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET); Higher Education; Research, Development and Innovation (RDI); Information and Communications Technology (ICT); and Economy; in addition to a seventh supporting index on the General Enabling Environment.
The GKI is a translation of the aforementioned conceptual and methodological foundations to a real-time tool that can be used to support decision makers and stakeholders in promoting knowledge as a basis for achieving sustainable human development, as embraced by the UNDP and as genuinely described in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – Agenda 2030, to proceed forward with a more comprehensive perspective on “Knowledge-based development”.