Literacy and Women's Rights

To mark International Literacy Day 2024, ALEF held a live webinar on the subject of Literacy and Women's Rights, featuring contributions from leading international researchers and practitioners. The aim of the event was to raise awareness of the millions of women and girls still being denied access to even basic education, and to explore ways in which literacy can contribute to women's empowerment.

Rafat Nabi shared some lessons from her experience of work with women and girls in hard to reach communities in Pakistan and Afghanistan, drawing on her forthcoming book on the secrets to success in non-formal education. Barbara Trudell of SIL spoke about the importance of literacy to women's rights in sub-Saharan Africa. Resty Mutaawe, Director of Change African Child International, described how ALEF empowerment groups helped marginalized young women in Kampala and Entebbe to become financially independent and drive change in their communities.

After the main contributions there was a lively discussion featuring questions from the audience on some of the practical challenges facing adult literacy programmes.

We have received extremely positive feedback and plan to host more discussions in the future on key topics concerning non-formal education, empowerment and literacy.

You can see the full video here, or on ALEF's youtube channel.