UNESCO undertakes capacity-building for sustainable literacy through multidimensional activities. The main areas of capacity-building in the fields of literacy and non-formal education include:

• policy formulation and implementation
• institution building
• planning and management
• curriculum development and materials design
• teaching and learning strategies and methodologies
• training of trainers, as well as facilitators
• developing support structures and mechanisms, as well as learner performance assessment
• monitoring and evaluation

The modalities of capacity development for literacy include training, study visits, peer reviews, South-South and North-South exchanges, networking and partnership-building. Various groups from the governmental and civil society levels are the focus of capacity development, including policy-makers, planners, and programme managers and implementers. The sustainability of any literacy action depends on good capacity, and efforts to improve it must start from an assessment of capacity needs at country level.

Examples
A situation analysis, such as that carried out by LIFE countries, is one way of identifying capacity-building needs. Another tool for this purpose is the UNESCO National Education Support Strategy (UNESS).