Literacy Coordinating Council

LCC-NGO FORUM 2021

CSO-LGU Partnerships:

Sustaining Literacy Advocacy in the New Normal and Beyond

November 16-17, 2021; via Zoom

Background

The pandemic has been a reminder of the critical importance of diverse literacies – digital and information literacy, health literacy, literacy embedded in practical skills training, livelihood and income-generating activities, parents’ literacy, and education to be able to support their children’s learning, ALE among others. Beyond its intrinsic importance as part of the right to education, literacy empowers individuals and communities, enabling them to navigate through the challenges of a rapidly changing world.

For literacy to contribute to building a solid foundation for a human-centered recovery within and beyond the context of the pandemic, it is necessary to sustain and advocate for literacy programs which are responsive to the needs and contexts of individuals and communities “within the framework of lifelong learning”. Literacy can only unfold its full potential to “transform our world” if it is conceptualized and operationalized from a lifelong learning perspective.

Civil society organizations (CSOs), people’s organizations (POs) and local communities have done an immense amount of work in uplifting the education of disadvantaged groups like the Indigenous Peoples, Moro people, Persons with Disabilities, children and adults in disaster- affected and conflict areas, children/youth and adults in both rural and urban poor communities.

Literacy programs and activities by CSOs address literacy in combination with the development of other skills and competencies. They can be classified as education, training, entrepreneurial and livelihood, leadership, citizenship education and life skills literacy programs and are innovative, participative and learner centered.

The creativity and innovativeness the CSOs/POs have done and continue to do in enriching literacy programs are practices which can be multiplied and scaled-up, making such programs accessible. Sadly, much of the innovation and good practices rarely find their way into mainstream policy and practice. And on their own, lack of adequate funding limits their capacity to expand the scale of the program. There is also little information sharing about CSOs/Pos various literacy initiatives.

The national government, local government units and CSOs/POs must continue to work closely to promote and advocate for literacy in a lifelong learning perspective - in developing literacies which are relevant to the realities, circumstance and contexts of people and communities. Policies, programs and long-term investments need to be ensured to make “literacy in a lifelong learning perspective” inclusive and accessible to all. Forum Theme CSO-LGU Partnerships: Sustaining Literacy Advocacy in the New Normal and Beyond.

Forum Objectives

The forum aims to:

1) Provide a venue for sharing of good practices and innovations in literacy advocacy within the framework of lifelong learning.

2) Broaden CSO-LGU partnerships to sustain literacy advocacy in the new normal and beyond.

3) Develop evidence-based policy recommendations gathered from various literacy stakeholders.

Target Participants

• Civil Society Organizations
• Education Network (E-net) Philippines
• LCC Members/Representatives
• TWG and LCC Secretariat