The UNESCO Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE) is a global strategic framework for collaborative action to enhance literacy efforts in those countries that have a literacy rate of less than 50% or an adult population without literacy skills of more than 10 million. It was launched by the Director-General during the 33rd session of the General Conference in October 2005. LIFE aims to help achieve the Dakar Goals - in particular Goals 3, 4 and 5 - and the goals of the United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD). LIFE also supports the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on poverty reduction and women's empowerment.

LIFE is a process in support of literacy which is country-led and country-specific and will be implemented in 35 countries over an eleven-year period, through three progressive phases. Participating countries are:

• Asia and the Pacific: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea;
• Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone;
• Arab States: Egypt, Iraq, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan and Yemen;
• Latin America and the Caribbean: Brazil and Haiti.

The overall goal of LIFE is to empower people, especially rural women and girls, who have inadequate literacy skills and competencies.

The immediate objectives of LIFE are:
• To reinforce the national and international commitment to literacy through advocacy and communication;
• To support the articulation of policies for sustainable literacy within sector-wide and national development frameworks:
• To strengthen national capacities for programme design, management and implementation;
• To enhance countries' innovative initiatives and practices in providing literacy learning opportunities.

Partnerships will be developed between national governments, NGOs, civil society, UN agencies and donor countries as well as the private sector to improve countries' literacy situation. Enhancing capacity for monitoring and evaluating of literacy and conducting research and facilitating sharing of information about literacy are also among the activities in the framework of LIFE.

Although all LIFE countries are invited to accelerate their implementation, they will receive a special attention in three waves. The eleven(11) countries, which are included in the first phase (Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Haiti) started their process in 2006 with preparatory activities such as situational analysis, launching and validation workshops and formulation of country action plans, and some of them are implementing major activities in the framework of extra-budgetary funded capacity-building for EFA projects.

UIL's primary function is the overall coordination of LIFE by fostering enabling and facilitating processes of continuous consultation and communication with all stakeholders. UIL is also engaged at the country level through providing its services of technical assistance upon request, which are tailor-made to the specific contexts and needs.

UIL activities related to LIFE are based on the proposed LIFE Strategy for 2007-2009, which focuses on situation analysis and advocacy within the regional literacy conferences, to be held in support of global literacy within the context of EFA.

Contact:
Ulrike Hanemann

UIL Cluster on Literacy
LIFE Vision and Strategy Paper
UNESCO Literacy Portal
UNESCO Website on Education for All (EFA)
EFA Global Monitoring Report
Millennium Development Goals