UN Literacy Decade sets direction for remaining years 2009-2012
Experts mapped out three major objectives which will guide literacy promotion for the remaining years of the UN Literacy Decade, tackle the challenge of raising literacy rates worldwide and give new opportunities to 776 million illiterate adults and 75 million out-of-school children.
Sixty experts from five continents gathered at UNESCO, Paris to discuss a strategic action framework for the second half of the UNLD.
Over three days, 26 – 28 January, specialists from government, civil society, the private sector and multilateral organizations debated what strategies and actions will be needed to make the objectives reality.
The Consultation agreed on three main thrusts: mobilizing stronger political commitment to literacy; reinforcing effective programme delivery; and harnessing new resources for literacy.
Speaking at the High-Level Symposium which opened the Technical Consultation, Mr André Luiz de Figueredo Lázaro, Vice-Minister of Education of Brazil, called on participants to ensure that illiterate people ‘are not cast adrift’ and appealed to governments everywhere to deliver on promises of literacy and basic education for all.
Participants concluded with an emphasis on the need for urgent action on literacy so that no one is excluded from the knowledge society of the twenty-first century.
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