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Organized by UNESCO in collaboration with the Government of Cameroon, the event was attended by UNESCO Director-General Ms Audrey Azoulay and Cameroon's Prime Minister Mr Joseph Dion Ngute.The conference welcomed over 450 participants in person and nearly 500 participants online. Key attendees included the Ministers and Deputy Ministers of Education from Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia and the Republic of Congo, along with representatives from multilateral organizations, various governments, partners, non-governmental organizations, lifelong learners and other stakeholders. 

This year’s edition was celebrated under the African Union’s designation of 2024 as the Year of Education and underscored the transformative power of education in advancing progress and fostering unity. Within this context, participants explored effective policies and programmes to promote literacy for fostering mutual understanding in multilingual contexts, both in Africa and globally. Discussions focused on resources needed to harness literacy's potential for building peaceful and sustainable societies. 

In her opening remarks, Ms Audrey Azoulay reminded the public that "Research clearly shows children learn best in the language they speak at home. They feel recognized when we speak to them in the same language at school." She embraced the rich tapestry of languages and cultures of Cameroon and Africa, urging their preservation through multilingual education. Additionally, she emphasized UNESCO's commitment to promoting literacy and education in learners' first languages.

In his keynote speech, Senegalese writer Mr Boubacar Boris Diop echoed the words of American social reformer Frederick Douglass, who asserted that education is incompatible with slavery. He stressed that promoting literacy and education is crucial for a country’s social and economic development, and that without enabling multilingual education, education remains exclusionary. 

“Literacy is more than reading and writing. It enables us to question oneself, to discover the ‘other’ through their languages, and to transform our world,” said Mr Diop.   

Cameroon's Prime Minister Mr Joseph Dion Ngute, representing H.E. President Mr Paul Biya, closed the opening ceremony. He noted the growing number of multilingual individuals globally yet warned that many languages face extinction and 40% of people lack access to education in their first language. In Africa, eight out of ten children are educated in a language they do not comprehend. He advocated for a renewed international commitment to inclusive, multilingual education as a means to equalize socio-economic inequalities and adjust power hierarchies, as well as a pathway towards more peaceful and just societies. 

The International Literacy Day celebration continued with a high-level Ministerial panel and two sessions that explored how programmes, policies and financing for literacy can contribute to peace and mutual understanding in multilingual contexts. The emphasis was on three key areas:

• education for peace, global citizenship, human rights, and sustainable development,
• fast language-based and multilingual approaches to literacy development, and
• a lifelong learning ecosystem.

The Award Ceremony of the UNESCO International Literacy Prizes was part of the global International Literacy Day 2024 celebration. Six outstanding programmes received recognition during the ceremony.

The UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize was awarded to

• the 'voXmi educational network’ programme by University Colleges of Teacher Education in Austria, 
• the ‘Libraries Without Walls’ programme by the Foundation for Educational Equity and Development from Ghana, and 
• the 'ProEd LECTO LABS’ programme by Fundación ProEd from Panama. 

The UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy was awarded to 

• the 'Illiteracy Eradication Project' by Mansoura University from Egypt, 
• the 'Sokola literacy education for indigenous Indonesians' programme by the Sokola Institute from Indonesia, and 
• the ‘FastTrack' programme by the Aid for Rural Education Access Initiative from Nigeria. 

On this occasion, Ms Mmabaledi Kefilwe Seeletso, Chair of the UNESCO International Literacy Prizes’ Jury, shared an inspiring message: “I stand before you very proud, as an African woman and an African scholar, because the International Literacy Day is celebrated on African soil in 2024, a year designated by the African Union as the African Year of Education.”