14/2/2003
Fréchette Launches UN's 'Decade of Literacy'

The United Nations this week launched the Literacy Decade - a bid to extend literacy to the 861 million adults worldwide who cannot read or write. "Literacy remains part of the unfinished business of the 20th century. One of the success stories of the 21st century must be the extension of literacy to include all humankind," said Deputy UN Secretary-General Louise Fréchette at a ceremony to launch the Decade at UN Headquarters in New York.

The Decade has the theme of, "Literacy as Freedom." Emphasizing that literacy is a prerequisite for a "healthy, just and prosperous world," Ms. Fréchette noted that there is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls and women and that is why the first two years of will focus on "Literacy and gender."

"When women are educated and empowered the benefits can be seen immediately: families are healthier; they are better fed; their income, savings and reinvestment go up," she said. "And what is true of families is true of communities - ultimately, indeed, of whole countries."

Joining Ms. Fréchette at the ceremony was the Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Koïchiro Matsuura, under whose direction the Decade, will be co-ordinated.

In his remarks, Mr. Matsuura said through literacy, the downtrodden could find their voice, the poor could learn how to learn and the powerless could empower themselves. In that light, the drive for universal literacy was integrally linked to the human rights agenda. Literacy was not a universal panacea for all development problems, but, as a tool of development, it was both versatile and proven.

The implementation of the Decade's plan of action, prepared by UNESCO, will be organised around themes with biennial focuses such as gender, poverty, health, peace and freedom.