The United Nations Literacy Decade

In 2001, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously agreed to establish the United Nations Literacy Decade (2003–2012) to draw attention to literacy as an important foundation for achieving education for all. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has been entrusted with leading and coordinating the Decade at the international level. As a framework for achieving the goals of the United Nations Literacy Decade, the Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE) was established in 2005.

LIFE will operate in 35 countries that have literacy rates of less than 50 percent or populations of more than 10 million people who cannot read. Eighty-five percent of the world’s non-literate population reside in these countries. The initiative will be implemented over 10 years.

Universal primary education and gender parity have been emphasized in the poorest nations at the expense of youth and adult literacy, and produced limited results. And while primary school enrollments are on the rise in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia, more than 100 million children are still not enrolled in school. This represents a considerable number of children who are not gaining access to literacy, which is an essential step in basic education.

Nearly 771 million adults, two-thirds of whom are women, cannot read, write, or solve basic math problems. As a result, they do not have the basic skills needed to make informed decisions and participate fully in all aspects of their societies. Despite the size of the problem, literacy is overlooked in most governmental education plans and typically accounts for a small fraction of public spending on education.