Writing the wrongs: International benchmarks on adult literacy

Guidelines for policy-making in literacy programmes

By: Archer D
Produced by: ActionAid International / Global Campaign for Education (GCE) , 2005

This paper argues that governments are not investing in programmes sufficiently to achieve the UN goal of reducing illiteracy by 50% by 2015. The study attempts to systematise experiences of what works in adult literacy by analysing 67 successful literacy programmes in 35 countries. The paper presents the results of these common features in benchmarks or guidelines for policy-makers which highlight the critical issues that need to be considered in designing an adult literacy programme.