Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 11/2009

From Closed Books to Open Doors: West Africa's literacy challenge

August 2009

Oxfam Publishing

Abstract

West Africa has the lowest literacy rates in the world. This report calculates the scale of the literacy crisis in West Africa, and explores what should be done about it. The report is launched in the context of the 2009 Global Week of Action on education, which focuses on literacy and lifelong learning, and the UN international conference on adult education, taking place in 2009 for the first time in 12 years.