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Buoyed by US Global Literacy conference, UNESCO to organize regional versions

Buoyed by US Global Literacy conference, UNESCO to organize regional versions

UNESCO head Koïchiro Matsuura
Building on the momentum of a United States-hosted conference on global literacy this week, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will organize a series of high-level regional conferences during 2007 and 2008.

Building on the momentum of a United States-hosted conference on global literacy this week, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will organize a series of high-level regional conferences during 2007 and 2008.

“These conferences will address specific regional challenges in literacy with the aim of building cooperation among stakeholders and mobilizing resources for concrete interventions at country level,” UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura said.

This week’s White House Conference on Global Literacy, organized and hosted by US First Lady Laura Bush in her capacity as Honorary Ambassador of the UN Literacy Decade (2003-2012), was an outstanding success that will inject “vital new momentum into the drive for literacy worldwide,” he added.

Mrs. Bush announced that the US would contribute $1 million to the Literacy Assessment and Monitoring Programme (LAMP), a UNESCO initiative to improve the accuracy of global data on literacy. “Improved monitoring will be absolutely essential to our success in meeting international literacy targets,” Mr. Matsuura said.

The first of the regional Literacy Conferences, for the Arab region, will be hosted in Qatar from 12 to 14 March, 2007, by Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser al Missned, UNESCO Special Envoy for Basic and Higher Education. Azerbaijan, Mali and Costa Rica will also host regional conferences.