Editor: Luis Enrique López and Ulrike Hanemann Publisher: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, Germany and and GTZ-PACE, Guatemala Year of publication: 2009 No. of pages: 444 Size: 150 x 200 mm ISBN: 978-92-820-3071-4

Indigenous people as well as linguistic and cultural minorities are some of the disadvantaged populations whose illiteracy rates exceed the national average. They are therefore in need of empowering literacy programmes, particularly those that effectively address peoples’ learning needs in multicultural and multilingual contexts. This year, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) is contributing to the theme of this year’s International Literacy Day – “Literacy and Empowerment” – as well as to the UNLD, and the Second International Decade of the World’s Indigenous People, by launching a publication entitled “Literacy and Multiculturality: Views from Latin America”.

“Alfabetización y multiculturalidad: Miradas desde América Latina”, edited by Luis Enrique López and Ulrike Hanemann and published in Spanish by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning and GTZ-PACE Guatemala, provides an analysis of and recommendations on literacy learning for indigenous youth and adults in multicultural and multilingual contexts. The publication is based on seven studies on the topic carried out in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru in 2007-2008 to mark the UN’s International Year of Languages (2008).

The studies focused on analysing programmes that recognised the crucial role that indigenous languages play in people’s acquisition of the written code and consequently combined bilingual/multilingual learning opportunities with an intercultural and right-based approach. The lessons learned not only take into account the achievements made; they also show what elements failed and what adjustments were required.

The studies – by focusing in depth on concrete examples of programmes working with bilingual/multilingual approaches to literacy for indigenous youth and adults – are designed to provide empirical evidence that can then be used to demonstrate that approaches like these are equally effective – and perhaps even more so – than monolingual approaches to literacy. Furthermore, because these programmes are structured around indigenous learners’ unique vision and culture, they are also more politically appropriate, relevant and culturally responsible.

International Literacy Day is a global opportunity to advocate for culturally and linguistically sensitive approaches to literacy that empower marginalised populations such as indigenous peoples. It is an opportunity to stress the demand for intercultural, participatory and gender-sensitive literacy programmes for indigenous youth and adults that both strengthen citizenship rights at the ethnic and individual levels and encourage learners to make use of these rights.