This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
The United Nations has launched a new ten-year campaign toincrease literacy around the world. People with literacy skills canread and write. People who are not able to read and write areconsidered illiterate.
There are currently about eight-hundred-sixty-million illiteratepeople around the world. That is one out of every five adults overage fifteen. Two-thirds of them are women. In addition, more thanone-hundred-thirteen-million children do not attend school and arefailing to learn to read and write.
The main message of the U-N campaign is “Literacy as Freedom.”Deputy U-N Secretary General Louise Frechette launched the campaignin February during a special ceremony at U-N headquarters in NewYork City.
She said that literacy is needed for a healthy, fair andsuccessful world. She also noted the importance of education forgirls and women to improve conditions in developing countries. Thatis why the first two years of the campaign will be aimed atimproving the literacy of females.
The U-N Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization willsupervise the campaign. UNESCO head Koichiro Matsuura says the pushfor worldwide literacy is linked to human rights. He believes thatliteracy can help improve development and economic growth in poorcountries.
The wife of President Bush, Laura Bush, was also present tolaunch the campaign. She said the United States plans to invest morethan three-hundred-million dollars to support education in schoolsaround the world. An estimated one-hundred-million dollars of thatmoney will be spent in Africa. About seventy percent of the world’silliterate adults live in South and West Asia, Africa, and theMiddle East.
The United Nations hopes the new campaign will help increaseworld literacy by fifty percent by the year two-thousand-fifteen.This is just one of six goals set during a world education meetingin Dakar, Senegal in two-thousand. However, officials sayseventy-nine countries are currently at risk of not meeting theliteracy goal.
The U-N says the literacy campaign will be a huge test. But itwill also be an important chance to improve the lives of millions ofpeople around the world.This VOA Special English Development Reportwas written by Jill Moss.