Does literacy come first and development follow? How much literacy is needed as a pre-requisite to development? Can effective training in livelihood skills be added to large scale literacy programmes? Or is it more effective to add literacy education to programmes set up mainly to teach livelihood skills?

A World Bank and IIZ/DVV (Institute for International Co-operation of the German Adult Education Association) study examines two broad approaches to combining livelihood training with literacy instruction. One is to strengthen a livelihood-led programme with components in calculating, writing and reading. The other aims to enhance a literacy-led programme with training in one or more livelihoods. Based on literature evidence with country studies of programmes for very poor, mostly rural, women, the study makes a powerful case that livelihood skills training is a better vehicle for teaching literacy, rather than the other way round.

The report stresses the psychosocial aspects not normally considered when designing vocational education and literacy policies. There is overwhelming evidence that people who have completed courses are more confident, willing to take initiatives in developing their livelihoods and to take an active interest in co-operative endeavours. Successful learners across the world claim to be following more productive agricultural or livestock practices and to assert that they can no longer be easily cheated when buying or selling.

Other key findings include:

• The minimum period needed by a truly illiterate person with normal learning abilities to attain a degree of literacy and numeracy sufficient to support advancement in a livelihood seems to be about 360 hours of instruction and practice.
• The success of livelihood-plus-literacy/ numeracy programmes can be reinforced if they start from or, at least incorporate, training in savings, credit, and business management, along with actual access to credit.
• In Somaliland, a scheme that provides learners with vouchers to enable them to chose what they learn and from whom is proving highly motivating.
• Most literacy instructors are themselves poor and poorly educated; offering them a modest financial reward is more effective than depending on voluntary labour.
• Using two cadres of instructors, one for livelihood and business skills, the other for literacy skills, is more prudent than relying on lay persons to teach both sets of skills.
• Though it is difficult to work out accurate instruction costs per student, it is clear that costs are not unreasonable when the scale of benefits is considered.

Key policy recommendations include:

• designing education and training programmes for very poor adults that offer clear, concrete and immediate reasons to promote enrolment and that are participatory and interactive
• using literacy/numeracy content that comes from livelihood skills and is integrated with training right from the start
• recognising that organisations, particularly non-governmental, more concerned with livelihoods and other aspects of development are better at designing and delivering effective combinations of livelihoods and literacy than those with an education focus
• working with established groups of people with common purposes, rather than with individuals brought together only for literacy will improve the chances of success
• increasing wider dissemination of good practice, outcomes and impact of vocational education
• decentralising where possible to help planners to judge what students can and cannot be expected to pay for their training and to nurture their capacity to engage in locally viable livelihoods.

Source(s):
‘Skills and literacy training for better livelihoods: a review of approaches and experiences’ by J. Oxenham, A. Hamid Diallo, A. Ruhweza Katahoire, A. Petkova-Mwangi and O. Sall, Africa Region Human Development Working Paper Series, World Bank, March 2002 Full document.

Funded by: World Bank + Norwegian Education Trust Fund for Africa + Institut fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Deutsche Volschochschuleverband (IIZ/DVV)

id21 Research Highlight: 12 November, 2002

Further Information:
John Oxenham
15 Derby Hill Crescent
London SE23 3YL
England U.K.

Tel: +44 (0) 20 8699 9145
Fax: +44 (0) 20 8699 1849
Contact the contributor: john_oxenham@yahoo.co.uk

The World Bank

The Institute for International Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association

Other related links:
'Throwing away the primer: the 'real literacies' approach to adult literacy'

The Institute for International Cooperation of the German Adult Education Association works to establish and support adult education worldwide

Take a look at the World Bank's Adult Outreach Education website

The Community Literacy Project Nepal aims to enhance literacy practices, communication and access to information among men and women in local communities

Search Livelihoods Connect for resources on sustainable livelihoods