This study has been prepared for the African Inter-Ministerial Conference on Literacy, which is due to be held in September 2007. The main purpose of the paper is to analyse the costs of a range of successful literacy programmes, run by government ministries and international and national non-governmental organisations. The intention is to add to the limited amount of data on costs currently available, and provide broad recommendations regarding their calculation, to inform the planning for LIFE and the regional strategy for the UNLD.

This study of the financing for promoting literacy in Senegal aims to provide a summary of the available reports on this question in order to:

-Compare the costs of different programmes implemented in Senegal.

-Make recommendations for the calculation of the cost of a national programme, providing quality whilst remaining within the country’s capacities.

-Draw conclusions for planning the LIFE initiative and developing a regional strategy for the UNLD.

The aim of this report commissioned by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) is to test and apply our approach and the normative model in Brazil, Burkina Faso and Uganda. The three countries are multilingual in various degrees, and differ in terms of educational development, literate environment and socio-economic development.

Download: The Costs and the funding of non formal literacy programmes in Brazil, Burkina Faso and Uganda (PDF 568 kb)

The Education for All Global Assessment Report pointed out that only 5% of primary school students in Africa have attained the minimal level of competency which should be acquired by the end of primary school. Based on this, the need for creating and sustaining alternative education systems and approaches is painfully evident. However, funding for alternative forms of education is dismally low. In most countries, government funding for “out-of-school” education programs is usually less than 1% of their education budget. This is the niche for non-formal education and literacy programs.

The year 2006 was another milestone in the transformation of the institute. At the end of June 2006 the UNESCO institute for Education (UIE), which was established in 1951/52 as a foundation under German law, closed down. The 174^th session of UNESCO’s Executive Board – following the recommendation of the Director-General- decided to turn the institute into a body under international law and to give it a new name, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL). This was a historic moment in the life of the Institute.