A/RES/73/145
Literacy for life: shaping future agendas
particular children, to education in their own language, whenever possible, as
addressed in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, 3
Deeply concerned that, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization, 750 million adults, two thirds of whom are women, lack
basic literacy skills, that more than 617 million children and adolescents are not
achieving minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics and that 262 million
children, adolescents and youth worldwide (or 1 in 5) are out of school – a figure that
has barely changed over the past five years, 4
Recognizing that literacy is crucial in a lifelong learning perspective as a
continuum of different proficiency levels that are developed throughout life and
across different life contexts,
Recognizing also that substantial and efficiently spent investments are needed
to improve the quality of education in order to enable millions of people to acquire
literacy skills for decent work,
Recognizing further that literacy is a foundation for lifelong learning, a building
block for achieving human rights and fundamental freedoms and a driver of
sustainable development, and that the United Nations Literacy Decade (2003–2012)
had a catalytic effect as a global framework for sustained and focused efforts for the
promotion of literacy and literate environments,
Recalling the International Conference on Girls’ and Women’s Literacy and
Education: Foundations for Sustainable Development, held in Dhaka and co-hosted
by the Government of Bangladesh and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization, in support of the Global Education First Initiative and on the
occasion of International Literacy Day, on 8 September 2014, and taking note with
appreciation of the adoption of the Dhaka Declaration,
Affirming that the realization of the right to education, especially for girls,
contributes to the promotion of human rights, gender equality, the empowerment of
women and the eradication of poverty, as well as to development,
Recognizing the importance of continuing to implement national and
subnational programmes and measures to eliminate illiteracy worldwide as reflected
in the Dakar Framework for Action, adopted on 28 April 2000 at the World Education
Forum, 5 consistent with Goal 4 of the 2030 Agenda, and in this regard recognizing
also the important contribution of North-South, South-South and triangular
cooperation through, inter alia, innovative pedagogical methods in literacy,
Deeply concerned about the persistence of the gender gap in education, which
is reflected by the fact that, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization, nearly two thirds of the world ’s non-literate adults are
women,
Concerned that, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization, one third of the children not attending school are children with
disabilities and that the literacy rate among adults with disabilities is as low as
3 per cent in some countries,
Deeply concerned about the impact of disrupted educational services in
humanitarian emergencies on efforts to promote literacy skills, especially for all
children and young people,
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3
4
5
2/4
Resolution 61/295, annex.
See A/73/292.
See United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Final Report of the World
Education Forum, Dakar, Senegal, 26–28 April 2000 (Paris, 2000).
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