The EFA Global Monitoring Report is an annual publication which monitors the progress of the Education for All programme. It is prepared by an independent team based at UNESCO.

The EFA Global Monitoring Report 2006 entitled "Literacy for Life" was launched in London on 9 November 2005. The UNESCO Institute for Education contributed background papers to this report focusing on its own areas of expertise.

According to the Report, three-quarters of the world´s 771 million adult illiterates live in 12 countries in South and West Asia, having the lowest regional adult literacy rate (58.6%), Sub-Saharan Africa (59.7%), and the Arab States (62.7%). Countries with the lowest adult literacy rates in the world are Burkina Faso (12.8%), Niger (14.4%) and Mali (19%).

Severe poverty correlates strongly with low literacy rates. 64% of the adults who cannot read or write are women - a figure virtually unchanged from 63% in 1990. On current trends, 30 out of 73 countries assessed are at serious risk of not halving their level of adult illiteracy by 2015, the deadline set at the World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal, in 2000. Most of these countries are in Sub-Saharan Africa, but others are Algeria, Guatemala, India, Nepal, Nicaragua and Pakistan.

The Report points out that while illiteracy is highest in developing regions, significant numbers of young people and adults in developed countries possess weak literacy skills. As most countries prioritise expanding universal primary education, adult literacy is relatively neglected. The Report calls for a dramatic scaling up of youth and adult literacy programmes. Adama Ouane, Director of UIE, presented the report at its regional launch in Africa on 14 November organized by the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Africa (BREDA) in the context of a meeting of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA). Dr. Ouane also contributed to the German launch, organized by the Federal Ministry for Development Cooperation in collaboration with the German Commission for UNESCO, which 3 took place on 10 November in Bonn in the presence of Nicholas Burnett, the Director of the GMR.

Source: UIE news