Laura Bush Opens White House Conference on Global Literacy

September 19, 2006

NEW DELHI – U.S. first lady Laura Bush opened the White House Conference on Global Literacy yesterday at the New York Public Library. Welcoming representatives of more than 75 nations to the inaugural White House Conference on Global Literacy, Mrs. Bush challenged governments to educate all people -- men, women and children, rich and poor -- and urged private-sector organizations to dedicate their resources to ending illiteracy.

The conference, organized by the U.S. Government, represents an important commitment to worldwide literacy. First Lady Laura Bush, who serves as an Honorary Ambassador for the United Nations Literacy Decade, was joined by the UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura in opening the event.

Speaking at the conference, the first lady announced a $1 million U.S. contribution to the Literacy Assessment and Monitoring Program (LAMP) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Through LAMP, many countries are working to determine which people in their country cannot read, where people live who cannot read and why people cannot read. That information will help remove obstacles to reading, the first lady said.

The conference is designed to help mobilize national governments, foundations, donor countries, non-governmental organizations and institutions of learning in developing countries to form public-private partnerships to strengthen or develop literacy programs at the national and local levels. Besides the U. S., literacy experts from eight other countries (India, Mali, South Africa, Brazil, Afghanistan, Egypt, Bolivia and Burkina Faso) showcased literacy programs in their countries.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) sponsored the participation from India of Krishna Mohan Rao, Deputy Director, Directorate of Adult Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh, in the session on “Literacy for Economic self-sufficiency”. Dr Rao has worked for two decades with various national and state adult education institutions in India. His innovative literacy programs have resulted in award-winning improvements in literacy rates.

In India, USAID supports NGOs and works in cooperation with state governments to get out-of-school children into school, or bring them back to formal learning after dropping out or enrollment lapses. Interventions include specialized remedial education, and such school improvements as better health and hygiene infrastructure, life skills education, and use of communications technologies such as interactive radio instruction, educational television and computer assisted learning to improve classroom quality.

Worldwide, USAID assists developing countries to improve their pre-primary, primary and secondary levels of education with special emphasis on improving opportunities for girls, women and other underserved and disadvantaged populations. Over 770 million adults, two-thirds of whom are women, cannot read, write or solve basic math problems. As a result, they do not have the basic skills needed to make informed decisions and participate fully in all aspects of their society.