UNESCO provides technical assistance and advice to Member States to enhance policy development for sustainable literacy. It provides support at national and sub-national levels in designing coherent and holistic literacy policies and strategies addressing the acquisition of basic literacy skills as the foundation of education for all.

At the national level, UNESCO encourages Member States to place literacy policies at the centre of education systems and development efforts. Wider development frameworks, such as the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF)   and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs), form the larger context while education sector strategy and gender and linguistic policies will shape literacy programming.

At the international level, UNESCO advocates to include literacy within commitments such as the Dakar Goals (EFA), the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Plan of Action for the United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD).