BREDA in collaboration with UIL and the UNESCO Office in Maputo organised a regional meeting in Maputo from 29-31 January 2008.
The meeting brought together more than 70 participants, namely Directors of Literacy, LIFE focal points from the member states and UNESCO offices and representatives of civil society and bilateral agencies in the following African LIFE countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. As part of South-South cooperation representatives from Brazil and Haiti also participated. The objectives of the meeting were

1. To develop a common understanding of LIFE as a global strategic framework and an operational mechanism;
2. To share the policy agenda and programme implementation of literacy in the different countries
3. To analyse the progress achieved by the first phase LIFE countries since the first sub-regional meeting held in Niamey in 2006;
4. To discuss the concrete strategies and mechanisms for the implementation of LIFE at the country level;
5. To reinforce capacities on ensuring quality in literacy in the areas of a) curriculum development, b) training of trainers, c) assessing learning achievements and d) Monitoring and evaluation;
6. To share lessons on good practices of capacity building (on training of facilitators and monitoring and evaluation) and innovative approaches in different countries related to literacy and to adult education (e.g. issues on HIV, training for trainers, evaluation);
7. To set up a regional LIFE support mechanism

Africa is the priority region of UNESCO. It has the largest number of LIFE countries with a
literacy rate below 50% or an illiterate population of more than 10 million. Although
the literacy rates have doubled in the last two decades, they are still the lowest in the
world. The Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE) which is meant to address
countries with lowest literacy rates, includes 18 African countries.

The meeting ended with a consensus statement on what the member states, NGOs, Development partners and UNESCO should do. A draft of this resolution is available in French.

For more information, contact:

Teeluck BHUWANEE
Spécialiste programme education / programme Specialist education
point focal Régional LIFE Afrique / Focal point LIFE AFRICA
33 849 23 47
t.bhuwanee@unesco.org

Rokhaya Fall DIAWARA
Chargée de Programme Education / programme officer education
Coordonatrice du projet EX LIFE : EXB LIFE project coordinator
33 849 23 05
r.diawara@unesco.org

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