Statement from Global Book Alliance Leadership
May 24, 2023
Dear Colleagues:
On behalf of the Global Book Alliance (GBA) Secretariat, we would like to send you spring greetings. We are Sakil Malik, newly elected GBA Chair, and Sergio Ramirez-Mena, Deputy Chair of the GBA Steering Committee.
As we all know, we’re facing a global learning crisis. According to the World Bank’s 2021 report, The State of the Global Education Crisis, more than 50% of all children globally will not achieve the minimum reading skills by the time they complete primary school. Without new solutions, we risk leaving millions of children behind. One significant factor in the learning crisis is the lack of teaching and learning materials - in other words, the lack of books and other reading materials, or what we refer to as the book gap.
We’ve learned that solutions like high-quality accessible printed and digital books are game-changers, especially when they increase access to beautiful, engaging educational reading and learning materials for:
children who don’t already have access to a school, especially girls who aren’t allowed to go to school or migrant and refugee children who lack access to school,
children in remote and low-resource areas who lack books and other reading materials,
children who don’t have access to learning materials in underserved languages, or
children with disabilities who don’t have access to content in languages they use and understand–like sign languages or braille
As veteran professionals in the education sector, we are both pleased to serve in our new roles as the leadership of the Steering Committee of the Global Book Alliance.
We share a common vision of a world where all children have access to quality books that they can use to learn to read, read to learn, and develop a love of reading. Children deserve high-quality, accessible, and educational teaching and learning materials that make reading fun and relevant, in languages children use and understand, so they can learn to read, complete school, and escape poverty.
We believe education in the 21st century must leverage innovation and technology to make this happen—innovations in sustainable book supply chains, production and distribution of books and learning materials, and most importantly increasing active use while also strengthening the supply of new reading materials in areas where books and libraries are non-existent, where they are too expensive to print, or in remote areas where they are to difficult to distribute.
Thank you for the warm welcome and support for the Global Book Alliance. We look forward to working with all of you to accomplish our mission and vision:
OUR VISION
A world in which all children achieve literacy and have access to quality books in a language that they understand with which they can learn to read, read to learn, and develop a love of reading.
OUR MISSION
To transform the lives of millions of children in developing countries by working with partners to identify, promote, and support innovations, best practice, and policies that will change the way books are created, procured, and provided.
