The Jury for the UNESCO International Literacy Prizes meets once every year to assess nominations and make recommendations on the annual prizewinners. It consists of five independent members of different nationalities and both genders, appointed by UNESCO’s Director-General for a period of three years.
 
The Jury sends an assessment of nominations and accompanying recommendations to UNESCO’s Director-General no later than seven days after the completion of its deliberations.
 
The working language is English.
 
The current Jury members are:

SHINIL KIM (Korea) is former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education of the Republic of Korea (2006 – 2008) and Professor Emeritus of the Education Department at Seoul National University. He holds a BA in Educational Psychology, a MA in Sociology of Education from Seoul National University and a PhD in Sociology and Policy of Education from the University of Pittsburgh. Prof. em. Kim served as Chairperson of the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, President of the Korean Society for the Study of Education, President of the East Asia Forum for Adult Education, Executive Council Member of the Asia South Pacific Bureau of Adult Education, President of the Korean Association of Adult Education and Chairperson of the Learning Society Network of Korea. He is currently Chairperson of the Learning Society Network of Korea.

HONG-WEI MENG (China). Dr Meng holds a PhD in Educational Evaluation from the University of Hong Kong. Currently, he is acting as advisor to UNESCO INRULED (International Research and Training Center for Rural Education), where he recently co-authored the “Education and Training for Rural Transformation” report (INRULED, 2012). Throughout his extensive thirty year career, Mr Meng has worked with several governments and international agencies on educational monitoring and evaluation programmes. Some of the countries he has covered include: China, DPRK, Lao PDR, Mongolia, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. In addition Mr Meng has been acting as President of the Asia-Pacific Association of Educational Assessment (1995-2000), has been a member of the Governing Board of the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (2000-2003) and was Vice-President of the Cultural and Education Commission of the Central Committee of China Democracy League (1998-2005).

NORBERT NIKIEMA (Burkina Faso) is Professor of linguistics at the University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, where he got a B.A. in English before getting a M.A. and a Ph. D. in linguistics from Ohio University, Athens, and Indiana University, Bloomington, respectively. Besides descriptive linguistics (focusing on Moore among the Gur languages), he has been actively involved in workshops, seminars, consultancy and publication on language-in-education issues (the use of African languages in non formal and formal education, mother tongue and multilingual education), the empowerment of languages for new functions (writing dictionaries and practical grammars, the development of orthographies, the creation of neologisms) and the creation of synergy between adult literacy, non formal and formal education. The focus of his research and applications has been on Burkina Faso among the so-called francophone countries and includes a long list of academic publications and articles. He is a co-author of the History of Adult Education in Africa, to appear in the African Perspectives on Adult Learning book series of UNESCO and DVV international.

SYLVIA SCHMELKES (Mexico). Sociologist, she is the Director of the Research Institute for the Development of Education (Iberoamerican University of Mexico City), since 2007. Ms Schmelkes has over thirty years experience in educational research, and particularly in quality of basic education, rural education, intercultural education, and adult education. She has worked as the General Coordinator of Intercultural and Bilingual Education, at the Ministry of Education in Mexico, she also chaired the Governing Board of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation of OECD 2002 to 2004 and worked for a number of international agencies. In 2008 her work was rewarded with the Comenius Medal from UNESCO and de Education Ministry of the Czeck Republic.

ABDELWAHID A. YOUSIF (Sudan). Dr Yousif has a PhD in Education from the University of Toronto (Canada). From 1978-2000, he worked as an education specialist at UNESCO serving in Paris, Cairo, Amman, and Bangkok. At UNESCO, Dr Yousif notably established the Regional Programme for the Universalization and Renewal of Primary Education and the Eradication of Illiteracy in the Arab States (ARABUPEAL). Prior to joining UNESCO, he worked at the University of Zambia, the University of Khartoum and the Sudan National Broadcasting Service. Since 2000, Dr Yousif has been an Educational Advisor to the Minister of Education in Bahrain.