To mark the fiftieth anniversary of International Literacy Day on 8 September 2016, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) has published a research paper entitled Promoting Health and Literacy for Women’s Empowerment . Written by Dr Anna Robinson-Pant, this paper is the third in a series of studies on literacy and women’s empowerment.

The paper discusses the links between health, well-being, women’s empowerment and education, focusing on the role of literacy. It argues that cross-...

A study entitled Literacy and Education for Sustainable Development and Women’s Empowerment explores how and why literacy programmes can contribute to sustainable development and processes of women’s empowerment. The paper argues that only by looking in depth at literacy learning and development practices can we begin to address the challenge of narrowing the gender gap in literacy attainment. The paper reviews a range of adult literacy programmes and distills principles of good practice in order to arrive at recommendations for future action. It makes a case for the importance...

The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) has published a research study titled “Literacy and Women’s Empowerment: Stories Of Success And Inspiration” in contribution to the International Literacy Day on 8 September 2013.

The study describes promising approaches to developing literacy and learning for women, who are the majority of the world’s non-literate adults. Key success factors are identified to outline concrete recommendations on how to achieve literacy and empowerment of women...

In many developing countries, literacy has been seen as the key to 'women's development' resulting in a proliferation of women's literacy programmes run by both Governments and Non-Governmental Organisations. Nepal is one such example of a country where literacy programmes have been used extensively as an entry point for involving women in development activities. My own experience of working in this field in Nepal has made me question what impact these literacy programmes have on women's lives: in particular, I have wondered whether there is a strong link between...

Since the 1990 Jomtien Conference on Education for ALL (EFA) up to the Beijing World Conference of Women in 1995, education of women has been thrust in the center of government and NGO’s pronouncements, as they acknowledged the importance of providing women equal access to school and other educational opportunities. In Beijing, the discussion has led to a deeper reflection of the interconnections of women’s education and empowerment as well as the complex relationships between democratizing opportunities and the content of the provisions.

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The declaration of International Literacy Year (ILY) in 1990 has revived interest in literacy work. Most of its premised on the urgent need for the Third World to achieve total literacy by the year 2000. The World Conference on Education for All (WCEFA) held in Jomtien the same year furthermore put women in the center of the policy discourse as demonstrated in the World Declaration on Education for All which stated that “the most urgent priority is to ensure access, to and improve the quality of, education for girls and women’’.

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As women's education has become one of the key development objectives in the nineties, it is crucial to examine the assumptions under which policies, programmes and projects are formulated towards this goal. More recently, the concept of empowerment has been tied to the range of activities undertaken by and for women in different areas, education included. In all these, a related question is: From what and whose perspective are we going to evaluate such assumptions and its empowering outcomes?

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A network of international women projects, exchange of know-how, evaluation of project ideas with the aim of examining the international transfer possibilities and finally, putting it all into effect : these key phrases explain the framework of the international workshop ‘’Train the Trainers’’ in Hamburg. The reports of the partcipants and the results of the workshop will be presented here.

Download: Education in informatics for women by women: international workshop (...