Equipping governments and parents with low-cost monitoring tools to ensure books arrive in the hands of students

The Grand Challenge

Children often don’t receive the books they need to learn

While textbooks are critical to enhancing the quality of learning, the sustainable provision and distribution of teaching and learning materials in developing countries is complex. Books are often lost at various stages of the delivery process—from the point of entry for imported textbooks, to central warehouses for nationally produced materials, to transportation across difficult or insecure routes, or even during final distribution to regional offices and classrooms. This only exacerbates the lack of textbooks and supplemental reading materials available to students in many developing countries.

The Big Idea

Empower local stakeholders with technology to effectively track book deliveries

All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development launched the Tracking and Tracing Books prize, which sought innovations for low-cost systems to track books destined for early-grade classrooms and learning centers in developing countries. The goal was to equip ministries of education, parents, teachers and other local stakeholders to know where books are during transit as well as what books are to be delivered and when, empowering them to become advocates for on-time delivery and hold others accountable when books are lost in transit.