UN Chronicle | "Literacy as Freedom" - United Nations Launches Literacy Decade (2003-2012)

"Literacy as Freedom"
United Nations Launches Literacy Decade (2003-2012)
By Horst Rutsch for the Chronicle

Web Article

At the Literacy Decade launch ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York, Deputy Secretary-General Louise Fréchette on 13 February 2003 stressed that "literacy remains part of the unfinished business of the 20th century. One of the success stories of the 21st century must be the extension of literacy to include all humankind." Emphasizing that two thirds of all illiterate adults were women, Ms. Fréchette said literacy was a prerequisite for a "healthy, just and prosperous world", noting that there is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls and women. For that reason, the focus of the first two years of the Decade will be "Literacy and Gender". "When women are educated and empowered, the benefits can be seen immediately: families are healthier; they are better fed; their income, savings and reinvestment go up", she said. "And what is true of families is true of communities-ultimately, indeed, of whole countries." There was no time to lose if the world was to meet the Millennium Development Goal of increasing literacy rates by one half by 2015, she said.

Also at the ceremony, UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura noted that the downtrodden could find their voice through literacy and that the poor could learn how to learn and the powerless how to empower themselves. The drive for universal literacy was integrally linked to the human rights agenda, he said. Literacy was not a universal panacea for all development problems but, as a tool of development, it was both versatile and proven. The initiative, with its special emphasis on literacy as freedom, was designed to "free people from ignorance, incapacity and exclusion" and empower them for action, choices and participation, he said. Noting that the growth rate of world literacy had slowed in recent years, Mr. Matsuura highlighted the enormity of the challenge, remarking that the spread of literacy required stamina and staying power from all partners.

President Natsagiin Bagabandi of Mongolia, the original sponsor of the Literacy Decade resolution adopted by the fifty-sixth General Assembly in December 2001, warned that the international community would fail to guarantee equal human rights for all as long as it accepted illiteracy. Literacy was not only the primary requirement for economic well-being but also a solid base for a lifelong investment in a better and happy life.

Education empowered people so they could effectively overcome underdevelopment, poverty and unemployment, and contribute to the cause of sustainable development and democracy. President Bagabandi said that the virtual elimination of illiteracy called for an effective partnership-characterized by redoubled efforts, resource mobilization and coordination of relevant policies and strategies at the global level.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan, noting that "literacy is the key to unlocking the cage of human misery, the key to delivering the potential of every human being, the key to opening up a future of freedom and hope", stressed that the Decade was "a reminder that literacy is a human right". That was especially true of female literacy, he said: "We know from study after study that there is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls and women." Mr. Annan urged the international community to redouble its efforts to promote the education of girls, who make up the majority of children worldwide who are not in school.

Excerpts from Secretary-General Kofi Annan's speech at the ceremony

We must rededicate ourselves to the eradication of adult illiteracy. Here, the best approaches we know are those that are based on community action which takes into account local context and conditions, and puts the needs of the learners at the centre—with backing from Governments, international organizations and civil society.

Look at the women in a district in Tamil Nadu, India, where 15 years ago the literacy rate was well below the national average. While learning how to read and write, these women wanted to teach women in other, more remote villages the same. How to reach them? They learned to ride bicycles. Within three years, the district was declared fully literate.

Or look at a team of volunteers in war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo, who teach in the local language, Ngbaka, through which they introduce Lingala, the national language, as well as French. The project has continued despite the war because it is run by local people, adapted to their needs, at low cost.

Or listen to a learner in rural Haiti, who was 86 years old when he uttered these words: "If I'm capable at the end of the project of signing my name, or understanding what's happening when they fetch me for the elections, I know I'll have lived for something."

Links

World Literacy in Brief

United Nations Literacy Decade portal

International Literacy Day is celebrated every year on 8 September

Some Thoughts on International Literacy Day by Amartya Sen

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