To support their common goals of promoting socioeconomic development round the world, Microsoft Corp. and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today announced a cooperation agreement that will help increase access to information and communication technologies (ICT) and ICT skills training in underserved communities. At a formal signing ceremony in Paris, Koïchiro Matsuura, UNESCO’s director general, and Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman and chief software architect, outlined details of the agreement. Under the alliance, UNESCO and Microsoft will collaborate on programmes that focus on the specific needs of developing countries round the globe. “We recognise the importance of harnessing ICT to help improve sustainable livelihoods in underserved communities,” Matsuura said. “By working with global business leaders such as Microsoft that support our efforts to establish open and inclusive knowledge societies, we can accelerate the creation of social change and the expansion of economic opportunities throughout the developing world.”