International Literacy Day 2014, 8 september

International Literacy Day, September 8.
 Journée internationale de l’alphabétisation, 8 septembre.
 Día Internacional de la Alfabetización, 8 de septiembre.
 Международного дня грамотности, 8 сентября.
 年国际扫盲日, 9月8日.
 اليوم الدولي لمحو الأمية,

 

Journée internationale de l’alphabétisation

 

Literacy and Sustainable Development, 8 september 2014

Journée internationale de l’alphabétisation

ournée internationale de l’alphabétisation

ournée internationale de l’alphabétisation

 

Message by Irina Bokova,Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of International Literacy Day, 8 September 2014.

 International Literacy Day, devoted this year to the connection between literacy and sustainable development, provides us with an opportunity to remember a simple truth: literacy not only changes lives, it saves them. Literacy helps reduce poverty and ena bles people to find jobs and obtain higher salaries. It is one of the most efficient ways of improving the health of mothers and children, understanding doctors’ prescriptions and gaining access to healthcare. The lives of more than two million children un der the age of five were saved between 1990 and 2009 thanks to improvements in the education of women of reproductive age. Literacy facilitates access to knowledge and triggers a process of empowerment and self - esteem that benefits everyone. This energy, multiplied by millions of people, is essential to the future of societies. Today, 781 million adults worldwide cannot read, write or count. Two thirds of them are women. More than 250 million children are unable to read a single sentence, even though half of them have spent four years in school. What kind of societi es do we expect to build with an illiterate youth? This is not the kind of world we wish to live In . We want a world where everyone can participate in the destiny of their societies, gain access to knowledge and enrich it in turn. To succeed, we must also change the traditional approach of literacy programmes to encompass, beyond reading and writing in the narrower sense, broader skills with regard to consumption and sus tainable lifestyles, the conservation of biodiversity, poverty reduction, disaster risk reduction as well as civic participation. In these ways, l iteracy programmes can unlock their full transformative potential. 

 Commitment to these goals will be central to the forthcoming Aichi - Nagoya conference on education for sustainable development to be held in Japan this November. It will also be at the heart of the World Education Forum to be held next year in Incheon, Repu blic of Korea, to lead the global debate towards the adoption of new sustainable development goals at the United Nations General Assembly in 2015. UNESCO is working across the world – in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal an d elsewhere – to ensure that literacy is integrated into national development strategies. The Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’ s Education and the Malala Fund for Girls’ R ight to Education , launched by UNESCO, also focus on literacy. The programmes acknowledged by the UNESCO - Confucius Prize for Literacy and the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize enable us each year to celebrate innovative practices that show that achievement is within our re ach. New technologies, including mobile telephones, also offer fresh opportunities for literacy for all. We must invest more, and I appeal to every Member State and all our partners to redouble efforts – political and financial – to ensure that literacy is fully recognized as one of the most powerful accelerators of sustainable development. The future we want starts with the alphabet. 

Irina Bokova  

 

International Literacy Day 2014: Literacy and Sustainable Development

International Literacy Day 2014 will be celebrated worldwide on 8 September under the theme Literacy and Sustainable Development. The Day will be “an opportunity to remember a simple truth: literacy not only changes lives, it saves them,” explains the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, in her message for the Day.

Literacy Day will start with the award ceremony in Dhaka for this year’s five UNESCO Literacy Prizes, attended by the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, and the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova.

It will continue with the International Conference Girls’ and Women’s Literacy Education: Foundation for Sustainable Development, organized by the Government of Bangladesh and UNESCO, and opened by the Prime Minister and Director-General. The conference takes place within the framework of the UN Secretary General’s Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) whose Champion Countries* are expected to have high level representatives at the Conference.

Representatives from several United Nations organizations will also take part in the conference alongside donors, including international financial institutions, national and international non-governmental organizations and the private sector.

They will draw the world’s attention to the importance of girls’ and women’s literacy and education for sustainable development, contributing to the new international development goals that will come into effect in 2015. Almost two-thirds of the world’s 781 million illiterate adults are women, with no progress in reducing this share since 1990.

In a number of sessions, participants will reflect on girls’ and women’s education and literacy as conditions for lifelong learning and sustainable development, drawing on experiences from Bangladesh and around the world, as well as the findings of the 2013/14 Education For All Global Monitoring Report (GMR). Evidence from the report shows, for example, that if all women had a primary education, child mortality could fall by a sixth and maternal deaths by two-thirds. Child marriages would fall by 14% if all girls in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia had primary education, and by 64% with secondary education.

Poor quality education is leaving a legacy of illiteracy more widespread than previously believed: one in four young people—175 million adolescents—is unable to read a single sentence. Based on current trends, the GMR projects that it will take until 2072 for the poorest young women in developing countries to learn to read.

But even in high-income countries, education systems are failing significant minorities. In New Zealand, almost all students from rich households achieve minimum learning standards in grades 4 and 8, but only two-thirds of poor students do. Many immigrants in rich countries are also left behind: in France, for example, fewer than 60 per cent of immigrants have reached the minimum benchmark for reading.

Despite slow global progress in reducing the number of illiterate adults, there are examples of success. In Bangladesh, women’s literacy more than doubled from 1990 to 2011. In Ethiopia, the number of literate young people increased by nearly 20 per cent between 2000 and 2011.

This year’s activities focus on the links between literacy and sustainable development. They underscore the power of literacy to enable people to make choices that promote economic growth, social development and environmental integration. Literacy is the basis for lifelong learning and plays a crucial role in the creation of sustainable, prosperous and peaceful societies.

 “We must invest more,” states the Director-General of UNESCO. “I appeal to every Member State and all our partners to redouble efforts – political and financial – to ensure that literacy is fully recognized as one of the most powerful accelerators of sustainable development.”

                                          

Events marking Literacy Day will be held in many countries around the world. See our webpage

For more information about countries’ progress towards achieving EFA objectives, see UNESCO’s annual Education for All Monitoring Report

* Andorra, Australia, Bangladesh, Benin, Brazil, China, Croatia, Denmark, Ethiopia, Guyana, Mozambique, South Africa, Tunisia, and the United States of America.

UNESCO Literacy Awards Ceremony, 8 September, Dhaka Programme (Draft) 

DELEGATES REGISTRATION (9:00-9:30)
INAUGURATION & PRESENTATION OF UNESCO LITERACY AWARDS (9:30-11:00)
 SESSION: PLENARY (11:00-13:00 ) Panel discussion on the global literacy challenge and the importance of focusing on girls and women's literacy and education for sustainable development
LUNCH BREAK (13:00-14:00)
 SESSION 2: PARALLEL SESSIONS (14:00-16:00)  - Policies, programmes, funding, monitoring, institutional strengthening, multi-stakeholder partnerships
SESSION 3: PLENARY (16:30-1800)  - Reporting from the groups and charting the way forward fold COFFE BREAK
CULTURAL PROGRAMME FOLLOWED BY DINNER (18:30-20:30)

 More Information
Join the Forum : September 8 is International Literacy Day
Invitation International Literacy Day 2014 (PDF) 
Information Note for the celebration of the International Literacy Day 2014 (PDF)