Literacy Assessment and Monitoring Programme

Go to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics LAMP website.

"What do we know about literacy in developing countries? Which individuals have what level of literacy skills? How can different kinds of data help to better target literacy-related projects and monitor the global situation? The Literacy Assessment and Monitoring Programme (LAMP) aims to help answer such questions by developing and conducting a survey to measure a spectrum of literacy levels in developing countries.

"LAMP is being designed by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) in cooperation with various international agencies and technical experts. Such a survey is needed because most current data on adult literacy in developing countries are not sufficiently reliable to serve the needs of national and international users. For example, the data generally rely either on individuals' self-declaration of their literacy or on "proxy" indicators such as their educational level. With literacy at the top of the development agenda, good data are needed in order to help target and design appropriate actions."