UNESCO has been implementing a large scale literacy project of Enhancement of Literacy Afghanistan (ELA). ELA is a national programme of the Ministry of Education that aims to improve the level of literacy, numeracy and vocational skills of the adult population in all 34 provinces.
With financial assistance from the Government of Japan during the first and second phases of the programme, the ELA programme remained the largest literacy intervention in the Education Sector. The programme enabled graduation of 600,000 (60% female) youth and adults from literacy provisions under ELA.