International Literacy Day serves to recognize the importance of literacy and acknowledge the need to create a globally literate community. Literacy refers to a person’s ability to read or write, an ability that connects and empowers people, allowing them to communicate and interact with the world, and one that the United Nations considers to be a basic human right. Today, approximately 16% of the world’s population, two-thirds of which is female, is unable to read or write at a basic level in their native languages. Illiteracy in nearly all parts of the world has been linked to socio-economic issues like poverty and demographic factors such as gender.

In an effort to combat illiteracy, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) created International Literacy Day in 2000.  During the 2015 campaign, themed Literacy and Sustainable Societies, UNESCO stressed the importance of literacy as the most powerful accelerator of sustainable development and pledged that by 2030, the organization will ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy. This international holiday is observed annually on September 8th