GLOBAL BOOK ALLIANCE COVID-19 RESPONSE

• We, the members of the Global Book Alliance, welcome the establishment of a COVID-19 education coalition by UNESCO.

• We believe this coalition has a unique opportunity to ensure continuity around children’s acquisition and practice of reading skills. We also want to help ensure that responses today help to build resilience and access to reading material in case of future crises.

• As education systems everywhere are being disrupted at an unprecedented level, children will need to continue learning to read and reading to learn in their home settings. 

• The Global Book Alliance, through its flagship initiative the Global Digital Library (GDL), managed by the Government of Norway through Norad, can contribute by facilitating better and easier access to openly-licensed, free, high-quality reading resources, in languages children use and understand. Reading resources should be available, accessible, appropriate, free/affordable, and actively used at all times. 

•  In response to the current pandemic, Norad and the GBA will redirect current resources to fast-track the creation of a seamless cross-platform search function that will allow users to access quality open educational resources for reading from multiple source sites. 

• By summer, 2020, the cross-platform search will cover resources in at least 150 languages. The number of languages is planned to expand to more than 250 in the longer term.

• In accelerating this work, Norad and the GBA will emphasize and leverage equitable pathways for reaching all children, including those with disabilities, at scale with reading resources, including through distribution partnerships with mobile operators and technology companies and through books being audio recorded, subtitled with sign languages, or potentially read aloud on radio.  

•  The mission of UNESCO's Covid-19 education coalition is important. The GBA looks forward to helping by supporting the goal that all learners have access to free and openly licensed high-quality reading material in languages they use and understand at this critical time. 

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Transforming the world’s book markets and bringing books to every child

Literacy is a basic right that empowers individuals and benefits society. In recognition of this central role in development, the Global Book Alliance was founded to guarantee that children everywhere have the learning materials they need to learn to read by 2030. This ambitious vision demands market-based transformation in book development, procurement, distribution, and use—a flexible and iterative process we call the Book Chain.

Global Book Alliance is a partnership of donors, multilateral agencies, and non-government organizations whose vision is a world in which all children have access to quality books that they can use to learn to read, read to learn, and develop a love of reading.

Books Promote Self-Reliance

Illiteracy costs the world $1.19 trillion per year. It contributes to poor health, lost earnings and lost business productivity. Widespread access to books at home and in school promotes better performance in math, science, and other subjects. A love of books and reading also improves the health and wellbeing of individuals and families, opens up employment opportunities, and mitigates the chances that youth will pursue criminal or violent activities. UNESCO, the World Bank, and the International Commission for Financing Global Educational Opportunity have all called for the increased provision of books to improve learning.

Despite this, millions of children do not have access to the books necessary to help them learn to read.

Closing the Book Gap

An effective supply of books requires high-quality title development in languages and formats children can use and understand, access to those titles by printers and publishers, and a functioning supply chain to deliver books to their potential readers.

Global Book Alliance strengthens key stakeholders and processes along a series of interconnected events we call the book chain.

Literacy Resources

The Global Book Alliance is a partnership of donor agencies, multilateral institutions, and civil society organizations that are committed to bringing books to every child. GBA’s flagship initiatives leverage the resources, expertise, and convening capabilities of Alliance members towards innovative and high impact collaborative efforts.