Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

PROGRESS TOWARDS THE EFA GOALSYouth and adult literacyFigure 2.34: Within countries, women’s literacy rates are influenced by socio-economic and geographic factorsFemale adult (18 and over) literacy rates, by area, ethnicity, income, language, religion or region, selected countries, latest available year100908070AveragePoorestRichestUrbanRuralAddis AbebaregionKerala regionSpanish languageLadino ethnicityMetropolitan/Central regionPhnom PenhregionDistrito FederalSpanishlanguage onlyWhite ethnicityW. Cape regionBlack ethnicityCapital regionChristianUcayali regionCastellano ethnicityQuechua ethnicityFemale literacy rates (%)605040OuagadougouregionIndian ethnicityNorth-OccidentalregionOaxaca regionLimpopo regionARMM*MuslimCusco region30Rajasthan regionOther languageMondol Kiri/Rattanak Kiri region20Sénoufo ethnicity100East regionFulfulde/Peul ethnicitySomali regionIndigenouslanguage onlyBurkina Faso Ethiopia India Guatemala Cambodia Mexico South Africa Philippines PeruNotes: Data for Burkina Faso (2003), Cambodia (2005), Ethiopia (2005), Guatemala (1999), India (2005) and Peru (2004) are from Demographic and Health Surveys.Data for Mexico (2005), the Philippines (2000) and South Africa (2001) are from population censuses. Countries are sorted by average female literacy rate.* Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.Source: UNESCO-DME (2009).people. Bangladesh will have 16 million more illiteratesthan it would if the 2015 goals were achieved. 33Among the sub-Saharan African countries,Mozambique will face a deficit of 2.6 million people,based on a target set using 1997 data (UIS, 2009d).Changing the trend —making the literacy decade countThe disappointing progress towards the literacy goalset at Dakar reflects a collective failure of politicalcommitment. While there are many exceptions,governments and aid donors collectively have failedto attach sufficient weight to the eradication ofilliteracy. There are encouraging signs, however,that this could be starting to change.Some are apparent at the international level. In 2003,the United Nations launched a literacy decade, with33. The Bangladesh and India targets are set using 2001 literacy datafrom the UIS database.Figure 2.35: At the present rate, regions furthest behindwill miss the literacy target for 2015Adult (15 and over) illiteracy rates, by region: 2007, projected by 2015and required by 2015 to achieve the goalEast Asia/PacificLatin America/CaribbeanArab StatesSub-Saharan AfricaSouth/West Asia0 10 20 30 40Adult illiteracy rates (%)2007Projected 2015Goal by 2015Notes: The goal of achieving a 50% improvement in levels of adult literacy is measuredby looking at the 1999 illiteracy rate, reflecting the original formulation of the goal asexpressed in Jomtien in 1991. The adult illiteracy rate is computed by deducting theadult literacy rate from 100. Regions are sorted by illiteracy rate goal by 2015.Sources: Annex, Statistical Table 2; UIS (2009b).101