World Bank Marks International Day For Eradication Of Poverty In Accra

The World Bank office in Ghana marked the International Day for the eradication of poverty in conjunction with the United Nations (UN) in Accra on Thursday, October 17, 2019, under the theme ‘Ending Learning Poverty - Getting every child to read and understand by age ten’.

The Day is celebrated each year on October 17 throughout the world with the first of its kind coming way back in Paris, France, in 1987.

Speaking at an interactive event to mark the celebration on Thursday, the World Bank Acting Country Manager, Dr. Beatrice Allah-Mensah bemoaned the growing global learning crisis whiles stressing that too many children are experiencing learning poverty in this part of the world.

According to her, the percentage of children who cannot read and understand a simple story and are failing to acquire the foundational skills such as basic literacy by the age of 10 is alarming and requires urgent attention.

She further opined that education is the foundation of every countries growth as well as development and hence must be carefully looked at and invested in to ensure the future of the country is secured.

Meanwhile, Dr. Beatrice Allah-Mensah also assured that “The World Bank is enhancing its support to countries to help address the global learning crisis”.

Among many other steps expected to be taken, they have come up with a literacy policy package consisting of interventions focused specifically on promoting the acquisition of reading proficiency in primary schools.

They are also looking to initiate “A refreshed education approach to strengthen entire education systems – both so that literacy improvement can be sustained and scaled up and all other education outcomes can be achieved”.