1 week of literacy for a person in East Burkina Faso

"Literacy - broadly defined as the acquisition of the basic knowledge and skills needed by all people in a rapidly changing world - is a fundamental human right. [...] Literacy opens the way to participation in social, cultural, political and economic activities and to lifelong learning." (Hamburg Declaration 1997) For this reason, the OECD lists literacy as one of the most important development indicators. In developing countries, studies have even found a link between child mortality and maternal literacy: children of literate mothers have a 50% higher chance of living beyond the age of 5 compared to children of illiterate mothers (Cree et al., 2022). Even 25 years after the postulate of the Hamburg Declaration, around 13% of the world's population cannot read and write. Burkina Faso is one of the 10 countries with the lowest literacy rates: only 46% of the adult population can read and write. In rural areas, the rate is significantly lower at around 26% due to poor infrastructure (UNESCO, 2023). The situation in the Falaise Gobnangou is challenging for several reasons: Due to its location on the national border and the great distance from the nearest town, the area is not protected by state security forces and is poorly connected due to the lack of roads. In addition, there has been an increasing threat from Islamist terrorist groups since the beginning of 2020. This led to the closure of local schools. For children and young people, literacy training by private organizations is currently the only educational offer. Since the telecommunications structure has also been destroyed, travel to the project area is currently not possible. This also led to the withdrawal of all other NGOs. Due to the two military coups in 2022, the political situation throughout Burkina remains extremely unstable (BMZ 2023). However, the partner organization UNTAANI can continue to organize literacy training in the rural Falaise Gobnangou under the radar of the extremist groups.