About

Who We Are

Launched in 2011, All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD) is a partnership of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), World Vision and the Australian Government that advances EdTech innovation and research to improve reading outcomes for marginalized children in low-resource contexts.

We believe technology, when applied appropriately, can instigate breakthrough progress in advancing child literacy around the globe. We also believe the collective work of many diverse partners—governments, for-profit and nonprofit organizations, foundations and others—can accelerate that progress.

Two girls reading a book

What We Do

As one of 10 Grand Challenges for Development, ACR GCD’s mission is rooted in:

Sourcing New Solutions

We invest in the most promising EdTech innovations and approaches for addressing gaps and barriers to child literacy.

Testing New Ideas

We partner with leading education researchers to measure the impact of EdTech innovations on child literacy.

Scaling What Works

We advance innovations with the greatest potential to improve reading outcomes for more children in low-resource contexts.

Stats

Children are not expected to read by the end of primary school

Primary school-aged children are out of school

Cost of illiteracy to the global economy

If all students in low income countries left school with basic reading skills, 171 million people could be lifted out of poverty, which would be equivalent to a 12% cut in world poverty.

Get Involved

You can be part of the solution to get all children reading. Join our global community by signing up for our monthly newsletter, using or scaling our tested innovations and approaches, or partnering with us to extend our impact on child literacy.

Get Involved
  • “On behalf of the World Federation of the Deaf, we think ACR GCD’s idea and vision is incredible. Our ability to partner with ACR GCD to focus specifically on deaf children and their right to incorporate literacy in their home language via use of sign language first is remarkable.”
    Colin Allen
    World Federation of the Deaf
    Sign On For Literacy prize partner
  • “The All Children Reading prize enabled us to think about the problem differently. Instead of just looking for good people, we created good authors.”
    Amro Abu Hmaidan
    Asafeer
    No Lost Generation Tech Summit Prize winner
  • “Globally, the publishing industry recognizes the importance of creating accessible books for people who cannot use traditionally printed materials due to blindness, dyslexia, or a mobility impairment. The winners of the Book Boost competition are great examples of how all content creators can make accessible material, providing benefit to people in many different languages all around the world.”
    Brad Turner
    Benetech
    Winner of the 2014 Grant Competition
  • “Winning the Enabling Writers prize gave us a lot of visibility we never would have had otherwise. We had opportunities to help other organizations use Bloom to create supplementary reading materials. We’ve since won the Book Boost prize and are once again getting the opportunity for greater visibility and capability to put more into Bloom and share it with others.”
    Paul Frank
    SIL LEAD
    Book Boost: Access for All Challenge and Enabling Writers prize winner
  • “We’ve always seen technology as a way to lower costs and also increase access. We always knew e-books provided accessibility features that print books don’t. All Children Reading and Sign On For Literacy gave us the resources and support to focus on harnessing technology to deliver inclusive education.”
    Matt Utterback
    eKitabu
    Sign On for Literacy prize finalist and Book Boost: Access for All Challenge winner