The world has become a more literate place with rates going up from 56 per cent in 1956 to 85 per cent in 2015 but there still exist 758 million adults who cannot read or write a simple sentence and 250 million children of school-going age who are not acquiring basic literacy and foundational skills.
The Global Alliance for Literacy within the Framework of Lifelong Learning (GAL), launched by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova as part of International Literacy Day, September 8, was born from deep concern expressed at the United Nations General Assembly in 2013 at the fact that the world’s literacy agenda remained unfinished.
At UNESCO’s General Conference in 2013 a resolution was adopted to “…put in place a multi-stakeholder partnership for literacy that would ensure long-term global literacy efforts.”
The result, GAL, aims to harness the potential of technology to increase access to quality literacy learning and stimulate and promote collaborative programmes which connect literacy with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The initiative coordinated by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) in Hamburg, comprises UN, government and private sector representatives, regional organizations, donors, national and international non-governmental organizations and experts.
Source: www.unesco.org