Genre et alphabétisation : comment renforcer les capacités de recherche en Afrique (Gender and Literacy: How to Build Research Capacity in Africa)

Considering that literacy is a fundamental right for both men and women, how can we explain why 62% of African women are refused the right to literacy training? On current trends, nearly 800 million adults, including a high proportion of women, will still be illiterate in 2015. How can these trends be reversed? Despite stakeholders' desire to comply with international commitments on gender equality and the empowerment of women, their efforts are still insufficient to meet the challenge. The UIL is seeking to address this issue by building capacity for research on gender and literacy. It has adopted a two-pronged approach to achieving training objectives in countries such as Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Senegal, all of which have very low literacy rates, particularly among women. The main strategy underlying the training program was based on a constant concern with initiating a learning dynamic. It was found that, in order to bring about real change, special attention should be given to three aspects: 1) rethinking literacy policies and programs in a gender perspective; 2) developing a strategy for creating a critical mass of stakeholders with expertise in gender and literacy and investing more in research in these fields; 3) initiating learning dynamics in order to produce tangible results.