United Nations Promotes Inclusive Literacy and Creative Learning at "Patjarmerah Kecil" Children's Literary Festival

Jakarta, Indonesia, July 6 – The United Nations in Indonesia is participating in this year's "Patjarmerah Kecil" Children's Literary Festival, leveraging its global platform to enhance the annual celebration of children's literature and creative learning in Indonesia. The festival is showcasing a diverse selection of children’s books and is promoting literacy and the creative economy.

Indonesia continues to see a gradual decline in illiteracy rates. According to the data by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) in 2023, illiteracy rate among the population aged 10 years and above stood at 3.18%.

Indonesia's literacy initiatives have been recognized by UNESCO, including the King Sejong Literacy Prize in 2018 and the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy in 2019 .

Globally, one in five children, adolescents, and youth are excluded from education, with disparities exacerbated by poverty, gender, language, disability, ethnicity and migration status, among others. Transforming education has been identified by the United Nations as one of only six key drivers to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Two years after the Transforming Education Summit (TES) convened by the UN Secretary General, a a Special Event on Transforming Education will be held in New York on 11 July. It seeks to spur greater commitment and action on education transformation in the context of the upcoming Summit of the Future, to be held in September.

"Education is key to development – and promoting inclusive development, and therefore inclusive education, is at the heart of the UN’s mandate,” said Miklos Gaspar, Director of the United Nations Information Center (UNIC) in Jakarta. “We are here to show our support and encourage young Indonesians to embrace literacy and creativity.”

Highlights from the UN corner include:

• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO): Showcasing posters from Indonesian children who have won repeatedly the global World Food Day poster contest, outshining peers from over 100 countries. 
• International Organizaion for Migration (IOM): Presenting artwork from child refugees and participating at the writing workshop entitled "Tell your story today” on July 6, facilitated by digital literacy champion Reda Gaudiamo. The workshop will include 10 refugee children and 20 local child authors.
• United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): Featuring the digital display of comics by Rizka Raisa Fatimah Ramli, a 17-year-old from Makassar, winner of the 2019 UNICEF and Comics Uniting Nations’ worldwide comic contest. Her work focuses on promoting safety from violence in and around schools.
• United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO): Providing gifts and reading materials to children to enhance the activities at the festival.
• United Nations Volunteers (UNV): Leading the engagement with an SDG board game and a special World Food Day activation art book for children.

A pocketbook of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, translated into more than 10 ethnic languages of Indonesia, furthering the reach of this essential document. The United Nations is committed to strengthening support for literacy initiatives in Indonesia.

Media contact: Siska Widyawati, UN Information Center 08788 488 5489