International Literacy Day

[1][2][3] Some 775 million lack minimum literacy skills; one in five adults are still not literate and two-thirds of, them are women.

[5][6] According to UNESCO’s "Global Monitoring Report on Education for All (2006),"[7] South Asia has the lowest regional adult literacy rate (58.6%), followed by sub-Saharan Africa (59.7%).

2023 The theme for the 2023 celebration was Promoting Literacy for a World in transition: Building the foundation for Sustainable and Peaceful Societies.

[16][17] 2024 Promoting multilingual education: Literacy for mutual understanding and peace was the theme for the celebration.

[18][19] The following writers are supporting UNESCO through the Writers for Literacy Initiative:[20] Margaret Atwood, Paul Auster, Philippe Claudel, Paulo Coelho, Philippe Delerm, Fatou Diome, Chahdortt Djavann, Nadine Gordimer, Amitav Ghosh, Marc Levy, Alberto Manguel, Anna Moi, Scott Momaday, Toni Morrison, Érik Orsenna, Gisèle Pineau, El Tayeb Salih, Francisco Jose Sionil, Wole Soyinka, Amy Tan, Miklós Vámos, Abdourahman Waberi, Wei Wei, Banana Yoshimoto.