On the occasion of the International Literacy Day (8 September), the UNESCO Creative Cities of Literature jointly launched a social media campaign with the hashtag #InternationalLiteracyDay2020 and #UNESCOCitiesofLiterature.

As the world continues to battle the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cities of Literature redesigned their plans for the 2020 edition of International Literacy Day, in order to enable digital and simultaneous celebrations around the world.

Led by the city of Bucheon, a UNESCO Creative City of Literature in the Republic of Korea, the campaign aimed to highlight adult literacy education and community access projects, ongoing work of libraries and national charities, exhibitions, readings of old and brand-new stories for children, community workshops, as well as tips for creating engaging stories for the young from home.

14 Creative Cities of Literature from 10 different countries took part in this collaborative campaign, including Bucheon and Wonju (Republic of Korea), Edinburgh, Manchester,  Norwich and Nottingham (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Dunedin (New Zealand), Kuhmo (Finland), Lillehammer (Norway), Montevideo (Uruguay), Nanjing (People’s Republic of China), Québec (Canada), Seattle (United States of America), and Ulyanovsk (Russian Federation).

Through the social media campaign the UNESCO Creative Cities of Literature seized the opportunity to further increase literacy, and to improve life outcomes and wellbeing for their communities in line with the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.