Literacy: Foundation for Achieving SDGs

If all students in low-income countries left school with basic reading skills, 171 million people would be lifted out of poverty. 1 Ending poverty directly contributes to ending hunger.

Literacy has a huge impact on lowering child mortality, and 2 increases ability to engage with the healthcare system.²

Literacy is the foundation of all education; without literacy, education is impossible.

Literacy empowers women, helping them gain greater selfconfidence, respect and freedoms. In Africa, 20% of illiterate girls 3 are married before they turn 18, compared to 4% of literate girls.³

Literacy improves awareness of water, sanitation & hygiene (WASH) issues, enabling people to advocate for clean water.

Literacy improves employment prospects and income. Literate workers earn more than those who are illiterate, and nations with higher literacy rates have higher rates of economic growth. ALfA_Accelerating Learning for All focuses on 6C skills – collaboration, communication, critical thinking, creativity, citizenship and character – which is crucial for innovative 4 industries, including renewable energy.⁴

Literacy fosters greater social equality, empowering people from 5 disadvantaged castes and classes to stand up for their rights.⁵

Literacy aids greater awareness of environmental issues, and is also critical in reducing population growth, particularly by 6 empowering women to choose their family size.⁶

Compared to many literacy programs, ALfA booklets are extremely thin (just 72 pages to reach FLN), thus helping save paper and reduce deforestation.

Literacy is critical to people’s ability to know their rights and engage in civic institutions, including the judicial system.

ALfA’s paired learning process embeds communication and character skills, helping build a generation of collaborators.