Global Literacy Matters

Following the CONFINTEA conference in Belem, Brazil, I traveled to Rio de Janeiro to research a new Brazil program to include in ProLiteracy’s partnership with the Latin America Citi Foundation. In addition to productive meetings with CEPIA (a women’s rights organization), ELAS (social investment fund), Ford Foundation and Banco Real, I was pleased to connect with two organizations – Rede ASTA and Coopa Rocha – that match Citi’s literacy and microfinance focus. Both of these innovative programs empower women of Rio’s poorest Favelas to create and expand micro businesses to support their families. ProLiteracy will help them add literacy and social action components to strengthen these business efforts. In connection with these programs, I had several opportunities to visit and conduct participatory training/research meetings with program leaders and participants in the favelas. These ramshackle slums are perched upon the scores of steep massive rock mountains that dominate Rio and it...

David Harvey - December 8, 2009 CONFINTEA VI is now over and the world will watch for the longer term outcomes of the work of civil society organizations and government delegations that met in 2009 in Belem, Brazil under the auspices of UNESCO. As I understand it, this is the first time that civil society organizations formally met to work to influence the outcomes of any CONFINTEA -- and there are some results of this effort! Perhaps the biggest impact was a commitment to produce "fully-costed" and well-targeted plans "backed up by legislation" for adult literacy and basic education programs -- with the active participation of educators, civil society organizations, and adult learners themselves. ProLiteracy, in pushing for recommendations from civil society groups (NGOs), addressed the need for significant new funding by 2015 ($10 billion) and a central role for adult learners in formulating local programs. For me personally, being new to the adult literacy and...

David Harvey, Belem, Brazil - December 3, 2009 The US delegation to CONFINTEA is led by Brenda Dann-Messier, new Assistant Secretary of Education under the Obama Administration. I was fascinated to learn how this UN meeting operates and how the US organizes its work at such meetings. Brenda, the US delegation, and US Embassy personnel in Brazil, are accompanied by a state department official and lawyer. These two individuals are key to guiding how the US is represented at CONFINTEA, advising on positions and recommendations that are consistent with overall US foreign policy of the Obama Administration. You may be surprised to hear that based on a legal rationale, the US will not support language that asserts that adult literacy is a fundamental human right -- due to the legal meaning of this language under various treaties and US federal laws. The US will support other language that encourages "member states" to adequately fund adult literacy and basic education pr...

David Harvey, Belem, Brazil - 12/02/09 Living in the United States, I might say that we have come to expect a certain order to life. Standing in line, ordering food, getting change promptly, lining up to board flights, and so on. In Brazil, where I am attending CONFINTEA, the rules and norms are very different! I have so many examples of cultural differences; it is hard to capture them all. For me, a restrained and orderly individual, boarding flights in Brazil was a new endeavor and a challenge – hustling through managed chaos to navigate the crowds to the boarding gate. I faced an additional challenge today when I went to a cafe in the convention center and ordered lunch. I paid and was promptly given a ticket. I waited 15 minutes until I learned you have to give the ticket to the next person behind the counter to get your food. 20 minutes later after crowding together with other folks waiting for their meals, I was on my way, no line, no particular order and what seemed to m...

David Harvey, Belem, Brazil - 12/1/2009 Today the full CONFINTEA meeting convened, organized by UNESCO. 142 countries are represented here and 46 education ministers are in attendance. The US delegation is led by Brenda Dann-Messier, Assistant Secretary of Education. As the meeting opened, the US moved to amend the UN rules by including a statement about seeking consensus, which was promptly amended by the South Africa delegate who urged open and vigorous debate. Rousing speeches were given this morning by Princess Laurentian of the Netherlands -- a friend to ProLiteracy. The show was stolen by former Mali President Alpha Oumer Konare, who declared that adult literacy is empowerment and liberation! After meeting with 5 local ProLiteracy partners in Kenya, Nigeria, Colombia, Bangladesh, and Bolivia, we heard numerous reports on the status of adult literacy since the last CONFINTEA in 1997 in Munich. The news is not good. There has been some progress in areas of financing, policy, and...

David Harvey, ProLiteracy President & CEO - From the International Civil Society Forum (ICSF) - Belem, Brazil - 11/28/09 Lynn Curtis, head of ProLiteracy´s international programs, and I, David Harvey, arrived this past Saturday after a 10 hour flight to Belem, Brazil, to participate in ICSF. Over 1000 NGOs from all over the world are participating in the Forum, ahead of UNESCO´s CONFINTEA conference. CONFINTEA only happens every 12 or 13 years, so this is a rare meeting indeed! The Forum is preparing NGOs to participate in CONFINTEA, and will prepare an action agenda to try and influence the outcome of CONFINTEA. David Harvey, From ICSF Belem, Brazil - 11/29/09 One of the opening speakers of ICSF, Jose Roberto Guerara, from the Asia/Pacific Association for Basic Education, asked people to stand up if they had participated in past CONFINTEA conferences, with the first happening in the late 40s. A few people stood up. Mr. Guerara then asked, ¨"what has changed since t...