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Programme Leaflet [PDF version Oct. 2004] Programme Leaflet [WORD version] Oct 2004

	According to UNESCO, 860 million adults are illiterate, over 100 million children have no access to school, and countless children, youth and adults who attend school or other education programmes fall short of the required level to be considered literate in today´s complex world.
Photo from Eldery Care Project of the Egyptian Association of University Women

To combat this continuing global problem, the United Nations General Assembly declared 2003-2012 as the United Nations Literacy Decade. In the Resolution on the Literacy Decade, the United Nations affirmed that literacy is at the heart of education for all effort and appealed to all Governments to redouble their efforts to achieve their own goals of education for all by developing national plans in accordance with the Dakar Framework for Action, setting firm targets and timetables, including gender-specific education targets and programmes, to eliminate gender disparities at all levels of education, to combat the illiteracy of women and girls and to ensure that girls and women have full and equal access to education, and by working in active partnership with communities, associations, the media and development agencies to reach those targets. (Resolution 56/16 adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2001).

Efforts should not be limited to reading and writing skills, but must extend to all forms of literacy, including numeracy, media, legal, economic and information technology.

Join in the international effort to ensure that everyone has access to literacy in ways that are relevant and meaningful.

• Find out about your national literacy plan
• Lobby your government to mobilize the necessary funds for literacy for all
• Organize an exhibit or discussion forum to raise awareness about the decade in your community.
   
   

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is one of the key international organizations spearheading the literacy for all movement. The UNESCO website - www.unesco.org - offers a wide range of ideas for action and resource materials. Of special interest are:

For an extended list of other related materials, please visit
the Education Resources page

Türk Üniversiteli Kadinlar Dernegi (TÜKD), IFUW's affiliate in Turkey, offers literacy classes in different parts of the country.