In 2000, the United Nations established the Millennium Development Goals to provide countries, such as Burkina Faso, a framework for development and time-bound targets by which progress can be measured. The second goal is to achieve universal primary education and more specifically to ensure that boys and girls can complete primary schooling by the year 2015. While the 2006 Millennium Development Report found that Burkina Faso has made progress since 1990/1991, less than fifty percent of children are enrolled in primary school. The report also found that rural children face particular hardships in attaining education because of demands for children’s labor, minimal parental education and poor quality schooling. Because rural areas have larger populations of children, they account for a larger percentage of children who are not in school.
One solution to problems of education and rural illiteracy are village libraries. Well-run village libraries have an impact on literacy comparable to that of government provided schooling because they generate considerable reading at a relatively low cost. Small-scale, village public libraries are key complements to the strategy of the second Millennium Development Goal. By deepening and extending classroom learning, the establishment of libraries will ensure that the education received is of higher quality and of more enduring effect. Libraries are also ways to reach children who are not reached by the formal education system.
Reading, schooling, and more broadly, literacy, have positive effects on well-being in sub-Saharan Africa. Even in small-scale, low-input agricultural settings, literacy is strongly correlated with improved economic outcomes. It is also correlated with a higher quality of life for adults, as measured by improved health and nutritional status. Higher levels of literacy among women, in particular, lead to reduced child morbidity and mortality. Literacy of either sex may be essential to innovation, as innovators and entrepreneurs learn about science and technology and figure out how to apply knowledge developed elsewhere in ways that might benefit their community. Yet literacy is no magic formula. Merely learning how to read will not of itself produce these benefits. Reading skills atrophy if they are not used, and the value of the skill depends crucially on what written material is available.
The goal of this project is to promote equitable social development and productive literacy practices by providing materials and other educational opportunities to children, students, and adults in Niankorodougou, Burkina Faso. This project will work with support from Friends of African Village Libraries (FAVL), which has already opened five village libraries in South Central Burkina Faso. With this project, Niankorodougou will be the first rural library in the southwest region of the country. The library will serve the more than 3000 people living in Niankorodougou, including the 480 children in primary school and 370 students in secondary school, who do not otherwise have access to reading materials. Additionally, the library will be open to the 34,000 people in the department’s surrounding communities.
