Established in 1996 by UNESCO, OCCAM is the Observatory for Cultural and Audiovisual Communication in the Mediterranean and in the World. Since 2003, it has been formally associated to the United Nations Department of Public Information. Since 2005, it enjoys Special Consultative Status with the ECOSOC. Since 2001, OCCAM organizes the Infopoverty World Conference, an annual high-level meeting held
at the UN Headquarters in New York, with parallel sessions at the EU Parliament Offices in Milan and in several capitals around the world, focused on how ICTs can help in fighting poverty. In 2001, OCCAM founded the Infopoverty Institute at the University of Oklahoma. It develops its activities in 4 Continents: Africa, Latin America, Asia and European countries. It' board involves personalities of different nationalities from Egypt to America as well as another 15 countries. It is chaired by Pierpaolo Saporito, High Level Advisor of the United Nations Alliance for ICTs and Development. Gathering more than 100 institutions, in the framework of the Infopoverty Programme, OCCAM works for the diffusion of Information and Communication Technologies in developing countries and acts in close cooperation with the most important international organizations in order to eradicate poverty through a wise use of ICT. OCCAM has been rewarded with the “Medaglia della Presidenza della Repubblica Italiana".
