The 10 year period beginning on January 01, 2003 was proclaimed United Nations Literacy Decade (2003-2012) by the General Assembly in 2002. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was given responsibility for coordinating activities at the international level. In proclaiming the decade, the General Assembly (GA) reaffirmed that ?literacy for all is at the heart of basic education for all and that creating literate environments and societies is essential for achieving the goals of eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development, peace and democracy.??(A/Res/56/116)

The official celebration of International Literacy Day occurs on September 08. At activities and events around the world UNESCO wants to highlight the fact that although considerable progress has been made in increasing the rate of literacy world-wide, much more needs to be done to reach the goal set by the World Education Forum (Dakar, 2000) of reducing by half the number of illiterate adults by 2015.

For more information, resources and statistics you may access the following web-sites and follow the links related to ?literacy?:

www.un.org/depts/dhl/literacy 

portal.unesco.org/education