Equipping youth to address barriers to child literacy in their communities
The Grand Challenge
Children are not achieving minimum proficiency in reading.
More than 90 percent of primary-age children in low-income countries and 75 percent of children in lower-middle income countries – more than 387 million children – are not expected to read or do basic math by the end of primary school. In South Africa, 78 percent of Grade 4 students are unable to read a basic story.
The Big Idea
Digital learning game that prepares youth to tackle illiteracy in their communities.
At the core of social innovation are new ideas that work to meet pressing unmet needs and improve peoples’ lives. Research shows that engaging more young people in finding solutions is critical for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and creating sustainable change.
Leaders for Literacy is a digital learning game developed by All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development in partnership with Pearson, Project Literacy and the World Bank. The project was adapted from Evoke, originally developed by the World Bank, to equip youth with 21st century and social innovation skills to create solutions that address barriers to literacy, beginning in their own communities.
Leaders for Literacy
Latest Research & Resources
Begin With Books Prize
The Begin With Books Prize challenges global innovators to assemble cost-effective packages of high quality, accessible titles in more than 30 underserved spoken and sign languages.Begin With Books Info Sheet
Learn more about the Begin With Books prize, challenging global innovators to develop or adapt books in more than 30 underserved languages.Global Digital Library
An open source digital library of ebooks available in more than 70 languages available for free use on the web, mobile or print, or for translation and localization.
Leaders for Literacy
Latest Updates
- Blog // November 5, 2019
A new model for solving the book gap in underserved languages
ACR GCD prize winner Asafeer shares innovative publishing model that could inspire Begin With Books proposals and other efforts to create books for children in languages they use and understand. - Blog // March 5, 2020
All Children Reading Grand Challenge awards Begin With Books prize to four innovators creating books in underserved languages
Winners will also join ACR GCD Sign Language Storybook Cohort to follow standards for sign language book production. - Blog // May 4, 2020
SIL LEAD to create first large collection of local language storybooks for children in Mali
Begin With Books prize winner to create the first large collection of books in Soninke, Sénoufo, and Malian Sign Languages.