Global Book Fund Feasibility Study: Final Report
At the end of the study in April 2016, the Global Book Fund was renamed Books for Every Child: The Global Book Alliance.
Abstract
Although there have been major strides in education enrollment over the past 15 years, 250 million children of primary school age are still unable to recognize basic letters and numbers. Worryingly, 130 million of these children attend 4 years or more of school and still leave without basic foundational skills. Evidence supports the role of books in improving learning and reading acquisition, yet many children lack access to both reading books and textbooks. Over the past few decades, donors, including bilateral organizations and private foundations, have provided millions of dollars in funding and programmatic support to improve book provision and usage. Despite this extensive support, there continues to be an underfinancing of books, and the problem persists.
Traditional approaches are not working. We need a transformative international mechanism to mobilise funding, raise awareness, and tackle issues across the book chain. Results for Development (R4D) and International Education Partners Ltd. (IEP) were contracted to analyze the feasibility and design of this proposed mechanism, referred to as the Global Book Fund.
Following the finalisation of the study in April 2016, the Global Book Fund was renamed Books for Every Child: The Global Book Alliance (GBA).
The study was supported by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The DFID support was from the Policy Research Fund
Citation
Jayaram, S et al. Global Book Fund Feasibility Study: Final Report. Results for Development Institute Washington, DC (2016), viii, 350p