LIFE UNLD

UNESCO’s Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE UNLD).

Although approximately 38% of its adult population are illiterates and with more than 47% of out-of-school children, Sub Saharan Africa hardly implement effective policies and strategies to promote literacy and provide this important segment of its population life skills to their socio-economic and cultural developments.

Most countries still lack a clear policy on literacy and education for youth and adults that integrates a holistic and coherent sectoral strategy. The integration of literacy’s priorities in the sectoral strategies will benefit from national resources mobilized for education.

Moreover, inadequate (quantitative and qualitative) of qualified human resources in the ministries in charge of literacy is a major handicap to planning, steering and monitoring-evaluation of relevant literacy curriculums.

On the other hand, the sub-sector is characterized by the unavailability of recent and credible statistical datas. In the majority of ministries in charge of NFE, it is difficult to obtain accurate information on the various stakeholders, areas of intervention, types of training opportunities, the impact of shares, the stock of illiterates in the country, the number of literate people each year, etc. The absence of such datas can’t provide effective strategic planning. There is also a lack of willingness of technical and financial partners to address the situation of illiteracy in Africa.

UNESCO Africa work:

- Make a critical analysis of LNFE current policies and develop tools that enable to provide technical support to ministries for the revision or setting up of literacy and non formal education national policies for youth and adults that integrate Education sectoral strategies;

- Support countries in their efforts for regular production of reliable statistical datas by helping to establish MIS NFE, and contributing to strengthen national capacity in collecting, processing and data production;

- Conduct researches on the contribution of LNFE in achieving the EFA and MDG goals and develop strategies of advocacy for Governments and LNFE partners greater political and financial support and through a mobilization of networks and key actors of civil society working in the LNFE.

- Creation of inter-agency partnerships on LNFE aiming at the mobilization of resources inter alia.

UNESCO Africa results:

Literacy and NFE Policies

- ¨4 countries revisited their literacy policies and 4 countries developed a new LNFE policy or strategy with support & advocacy from BREDA, UIL & HQ

- ¨2 countries with no LNFE policy: national literacy surveys were conducted with UNESCO’s support

- ¨Literacy practitioners have been trained in planning ,monitoring and evaluation of lit programme

Languages in Education

- ¨Technical & financial support to countries engaged in the use of national languages as medium of instruction in formal Ed systems

Statistics of Literacy

- ¨Technical and financial support to establish a NFE-MIS

Knowledge management and communication

- ¨Production and training for using of referential of training for Literacy programmes

- ¨Training of national literacy managers in techniques for data collection, processing and dissemination (www.senalphaenf.org)