Partners’ Statements

White House photo by Susan Sterner

More than ever, literacy is indispensable in today’s world of emerging knowledge societies and essential for peace. By investing in literacy, nations can be assured of improving their chances for success in the twenty-first century.

UNESCO warmly welcomes Mrs. Bush’s initiative, which will greatly contribute to our work towards reaching the international goal of Education for All by 2015. This Conference is the starting point for a major campaign in support of literacy internationally, within the framework of the UN Literacy Decade and UNESCO’s Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE). As a follow-up, UNESCO will organize four regional conferences in the Arab Region, Asia and the Pacific, Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, mobilize partners and provide support to relevant literacy activities at the country level.

Koďchiro Matsuura
Director-General of UNESCO

White House photo by Susan Sterner

Advancing literacy is fundamental to advancing human freedom. Teaching people to read strengthens economies, curbs the spread of diseases, and saves lives.

This is urgent work that challenges all countries, including my own. To achieve our goals, governments, communities, aid organizations, and the private sector must work together to identify programs that are working and replicate them. Research-based strategies are the key to helping students learn to read and succeed.

Secretary Margaret Spellings
U.S. Secretary of Education

White House photo by Tina Hager

Our effort as a community of nations to raise levels of global literacy advances peace and prosperity. It helps people around the world build their nations, transform their lives, and improve the future for all of us.

Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of State

White House photo by Krisanne Johnson

Education is a vital investment in people. For families around the world, it can open the doors to peace, freedom, prosperity, and health—the aspirations of human beings regardless of ethnicity, faith, or geographic location. Literacy skills provide the foundation for lifelong learning opportunities that enable people and their communities to achieve those aspirations.

The U.S. Agency for International Development is honored to play a part in this important and critical conference on global literacy. We will continue to work diligently to achieve the literacy goals set forth in the Education for All initiative. The United States reiterates its strong commitment to supporting literacy programs in the developing world, and will continue to work in partnership with governments, civil society, the private sector, and other donors to promote high quality, sustainable literacy programs.

Ambassador Randall L. Tobias
Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and USAID Administrator