10 September, 2015, Somalia -International Literacy Day (ILD) was celebrated across Somalia on 8th September 2015 under the theme of Literacy and Sustainable Societies.

Somalia has one of the world’s lowest enrolment rates for primary school-aged children (34% for boys and 22% for girls) and is on track to having one of the highest proportions of disenfranchised youth. Only 710,860 children out of an estimated 1.7 million of primary school-aged children are enrolled in school. Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) is 42%. The number of out-of-school and at-risk children and youth aged 6-18 years has been estimated at 4.4 million, out of a total population of 12 million. The literacy rates for young women are very low compared to their male counterpart. Literate citizens in Somalia will be the building stone for a society that is equitable and possesses economic growth potential. People will need the skills and knowledge for their professional, personal and even their entertainment activities.

The celebration presented an opportunity for Somalia to take stock of progress made towards the achievement of the Education for All (EFA) goals and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and to shape the agenda for education and sustainable development. Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, compute, and communicate using visual, audible, and digital materials across disciplines and in any context. It is a fundamental human right and the foundation for lifelong learning. It is fully essential to social and human development in its ability to transform lives. The concept of sustainable societies demands that we change the traditional ways in which literacy is taught in the narrow sense of teaching the three R’s (reading, writing and numeracy) and include a broader dimension of skills, knowledge and development with respect to food security, safe health practice and child care. However, the goal of literacy remains a major challenge due to diverse socio-economic, policy and cultural causes. Literacy endeavors in Somalia are just beginning and more work is needed to understand the complexity, long-term effects and importance of preparing people for effective literacy work.

On 8th September, events were held to commemorate ILD 2015 in Hargeisa in Somaliland, Garowe in Puntland and Mogadishu in South Central Somalia.

Somaliland pledges to increase literacy by 2030 on World Literacy Day

The celebration of ILD in Somaliland brought together a wide range of government officials from six ministries, NGOs, experts and communities. Events in Hargeisa began with a march from the Ministry of Education to the official venue, Guled Hotel, which was joined by Ministry of Education officials, youth groups, women groups, scholars, students and adult learners from NFE (Non-Formal Education) centers.

Six Ministers participated the event and made speeches about the ILD and its importance. The Ministers include the Minister of Planning , Minister of Health, Minister of Religion, Minister of Parliamentary Relations, vice Minister of Environment, the Minister of Education and the deputy Ambassador of Egypt.

During his speech, the Minister of Education, Professor Farah Elmi Geedole thanked UNICEF and UNESCO for their support in working hard to increase the enrollment of children and adults to meet the SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) of ensuring that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults are literate by 2030. He requested the international community and humanitarian agencies to support the Ministry to reach its goals.

On behalf of the UNESCO Regional Director for Eastern Africa, Mr. Demissew Lemma, Project Coordinator for Somalia Education Programme, in his opening remarks, conveyed the UNESCO Secretary-General, Ms. Irina Bokova’s message on the International Literacy Day. He noted the importance of equal and full participation of both women and men in their societies, and addressed the need for “greater investment and more effective policies to embed action for literacy“ in building a just and sustainable future. He also added that by supporting “innovative mechanisms that generate positive synergies across all policy areas“ are in fact “vital to building more just and cohesive societies.“

Big literacy campaign coming soon in South Central Somalia

UNESCO together with UNICEF, Ministry of Woman Affair, Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Labour and civil society partners and university affiliates celebrated the ILD in Mogadishu by organizing a roundtable discussion in exploring the means to reduce illiteracy among Somalia adults especially women and youth.

Mr. Hamud, the Assistant Minister of Education, Culture and Higher Education Federal Government of Somalia reminded all on the need to take responsibility in fighting against illiteracy in Somalia. He said “A society which is literate is society that will reach development and will become sustainable in this 21 century.” He also addressed to the people that Somali’s first literacy campaign in 1970 helped majority of Somalis to reach high level of literacy. During the 1970s, after development of Somali language orthography, highly successful mass literacy campaigns were conducted, which contributed to dramatic increase of literacy levels of the population from 5 percent to approximately 60 percent. However, this stride was backslid by the civil war of 1990. He also encouraged people to prepare for another big literacy campaign which will be planned by the ministry soon.

Puntland preparing the ground for literacy action for the sustainable development agenda

UNESCO in partnership with UNICEF and UNDP, together with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE), Ministry of Women's Development and Family Affairs (MoWDFA), and Ministry of Labour Youth & Sports Affairs (MOLYS) and civil society partners have gathered in Garowe for the roundtable discussions to prepare the ground for literacy action in the post-2015 agenda in celebrating the ILD.

Honorable ministers from MoEHE, MOWDFA, and MOLYS delivered powerful speeches on the importance of improving Literacy levels and thanked UNESCO and other partners for their support. It has been mentioned that this year was the first time that Puntland celebrated Literacy together with the rest of the world, on the occasion of International Literacy Day. The UNESCO representative also took the floor and conveyed the UNESCO Secretary-General, Ms. Irina Bokova’s message on International Literacy Day.

The event continued with the display of drama activities focusing on the importance of the Literacy per se and for reaching the proposed sustainable development goal aimed at promoting “inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all.” Moreover, literacy experts made their presentations on three topics related to functional literacy: economic literacy, family literacy and health literacy. The presentations were followed by discussion led by the DG and the director of projects at MoEHE. The discussion went well and the participants asked question to the presenters.