The Global Book Alliance in Action
EDC Staff:
Funded by:
U.S. Agency for International Development
Partners:
ADEA, Global Partnership for Education, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Save the Children, UK Department for International Development, UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, World Vision
Duration:
2019-2023
Challenge
Literacy is a basic right that empowers individuals and benefits society. However, over 600 million children worldwide lack basic reading skills and do not have access to quality early grade reading resources in a language they use and understand.
The Global Book Alliance (GBA) was a partnership of donors, multilateral agencies, and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) working to increase the availability of high-quality reading resources in underserved languages by tackling the interconnected elements across the book supply chain. To support the GBA, USAID created the Global Book Alliance in Action (GBAIA) project, for which EDC was the implementing partner. An international initiative, GBAIA researched, analyzed, and offered solutions on how ministries of education, GBA partners, NGOs, publishers, printing houses, and other interest-holders can develop more efficient methods of supplying reading materials and textbooks.
Key Activities
EDC undertook the following activities for GBAIA:
- Conducted a book supply chain analysis (SCA) in each of eight diverse target countries to identify the problems these countries experience in supplying high-quality books to children in a timely manner
- Built stakeholder capacity to implement steps toward improving book supply chain functions
- Shared research findings to improve the provision of books in target countries and elsewhere
- Supported the expansion of the Global Digital Library to provide access to free early-grade reading resources
Our Impact
- Built eight countries’ capacity to strengthen and improve the book supply chain
