In 1998, the Director-General of UNESCO established the International Panel on Democracy and Development (IPDD) to advise the Organization on shaping its future programme with more emphasis on the principles of democracy and development. Over a period of three years, from 1998 to 200, the IPDD, chaired by Boutro Boutros-Ghali, held three meetings. The Panel's Report to UNESCO is the verbatim record of the deliberations of the Panel's sixteen members. The Panel, whose recommendations and conclusion are set out in this Summary, discusses the challenges and obstacles confronting democracy and development and the relationship between the two.

The Panel's stimulating debates suggest answers and invite further questions on subjects ranging from globalization and the unequal distribution of income and wealth, through education, religion, culture, the media, the role of civil society, sovereignty, justice and the rule of law to fundamnetalism, extremism and identitarian closure.