On 26 February 2016, UNESCO Headquarters and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) will hold a consultation meeting in Paris to discuss the establishment of a Global Alliance for Literacy (GAL) within the framework of lifelong learning. The meeting will seek the views of Member States on the proposed Alliance, which aims to help Member States achieve the literacy-related targets of the Education 2030 Framework for Action. The Alliance will promote literacy as a foundation for lifelong learning, focusing on the innovative use of technology and the establishment of explicit connections with the other Sustainable Development Goals.
Background to the Global Alliance for Literacy
Literacy has been one of UNESCO’s core mandates ever since the organization’s inception. At its 68th session (2013), the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) expressed deep concern that the world’s literacy agenda is still unfinished. The UNGA recognized the importance of national programmes and measures to promote literacy worldwide and asked UNESCO to strengthen its coordinating and catalyzing role. The UNGA also encouraged UNESCO to continue consulting with Member States and development partners in order to elaborate a literacy vision and agenda for the years following the United Nations Literacy Decade (2003–2012). In its 37th Session (2013), UNESCO’s General Conference resolved ‘to continue consultations with Member States and development partners in order to put in place a multi-stakeholder partnership for literacy that would ensure long-term global literacy efforts’. It is against this background that more than 100 UN and government representatives, donors, national and international non-governmental organizations, representatives of the private sector and experts from thirty-four countries welcomed and strongly supported the proposal to create a Global Alliance for Literacy within the framework of lifelong learning. This was detailed in the Paris Communiqué on Literacy and Sustainable Societies, which was adopted by the Global Meeting on Literacy and Sustainable Societies at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 8 and 9 September 2015. UIL has been tasked with leading the consultation process and establishing the Alliance.
