50th Agenda 

50th Session Issues

Women and Literacy

by
Kate Budd

For people around the world, especially women, literacy is the bridge from devastating poverty to renewed hope. The illiteracy rate has risen substantially over the past 50 years, but during the past 5 years it has become stagnant, hovering around 23 percent. Today, the illiteracy rate for women remains even higher, around 34 percent. There are 538 million illiterate women in the developing countries and a total of 640 million illiterate women in the world (Secretary-General). Nobel Laureate Godimer has stated, "Illiteracy is poverty of the intellect (NGO's)."

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines an illiterate person as someone who cannot, with understanding, both read and write a short, simple statement on his or her daily life. A person who can only read but not write, or can write but not read is considered to be illiterate. A person who can only write figures, his or her name or a memorized ritual phrase is also not considered literate (Beijing Platform).

Every year on September 8th the United Nations community celebrates International Literacy Day in recognition of literacy's centrality in the global quest for peace and development.

At the Fourth World Conference on Women (FWCW) held from September 4th-15th 1995, in Beijing, the education of women was presented as one of the twelve critical areas (Thousands Gather, 65). The facts presented concluded that two-thirds of the world's illiterate are women and that women are becoming educated at a slower rate than men are. Concrete data was released stating that increasing women's education leads to fewer births, fewer infant deaths, more women in the formal labor force and greater economic growth. For example,

"At current levels, the average Yemeni woman will have 7.7 children during her reproductive years; one of the highest fertility rates in the world... Women without any formal education have 2.4 children more than women who have attended primary school and 4.6 children more than women with more than primary schooling (Sizing Families, 16)."

At the FWCW, it was predicted that 28.2% of the women in the world will still be illiterate by the year 2000 (Seufert-Barr, 39-42). AIwas suggested that countries make an effort to abolish illiteracy completely by that date.

In response to the effort smade by the FWCW, on September 7th 1997 at the Sixth Annual Beijing Conference, many countries committed themselves to achieving full literacy by the year 2000. Secretary-General Kofi Annan proclaimed, "Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone everywhere, literacy along with education in general is a basic human right (Kofi Annan)."

During this conference six strategic objectives to successfully achieve 100 percent literacy were presented. These objectives are part of the FWCW Platform for Action, Education and Training for Women. Each objective states a goal and proceeds to map out specific instructions for governments to follow. The goals are:

1. Ensure equal access to education;

2. Eradicate illiteracy among women;

3. Improve women's access to vocational training, science. and technology, and continuing education;

4. Develop non-discriminatory education and training;

5. Allocate sufficient resources for and monitor the implementation of educational reforms;

6. Promote life-long education training for girls and women (Beijing Platform).

Achieving these goals will not only be difficult, but will be expensive, and require money that most countries with high illiteracy rates do not have. It has been suggested that money spent on space exploration could be put to better use for education to help prevent the negative effects of poverty, such as crime, illiteracy and disease (Money for Literacy).

In countries with high illiteracy rates, it has been suggested that NGO's step in and coordinate education programs for women and children. This sounds like a logical solution, but many argue that in the long run literacy improves the economy ,which provides the government with more money. If the government will benefit from literacy, they should have a hand in creating it.

 

Many of these goals seem logical to countries which support literacy for their women. However, there are those who prefer that their women be seen and not heard. Some Muslim countries, such as Afghanistan for example, do not see literacy for women as a worldwide goal on which they would like to collaborate. They would not agree that literacy is a basic human right for all citizens.

Questions

  1. Should the UN declare literacy a basic human right?
  2. Where should funding for the UN goal of worldwide literacy come from?
  3. What should the relative roles of UN agencies, NGO's and governments be in achieving full literacy?
  4. What are some programs that should be established to increase worldwide literacy?
  5. How can the recommendations presented at the Sixth Annual Beijing Conference be best implemented?
  6. Is it possible to improve upon the recommendations presented at the Sixth Annual Beijing Conference?

 

Sources

"Secretary-General stresses need for political will and resources to meet challenge of fight against literacy" United Nations http://www.un.org..80+un+webdocs+webdocs++women%26andliteracy
"NGO's involved in promoting literacy" United Nations http://www.un.org..80+un+un+br1999+br1999++literacy
"Beijing Platform" United Nations http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/beijing/platform/educa.htm
"Kofi Annan's International Day Message" United Nations
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/intl/annan.html
"Money for Literacy" United Nations
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/mon/annan.html
Seufert-Barr, Nancy. "Seeking Action for Equality, Development and Peace." UN Chronicle, No. 2, 1995.
"Sizing Families,. Populi, April, 1995.
"Thousands Gather in Beijing for Fourth Women's Conference." UN Chronicle, No.3, 1995.