The UNESCO-Pearson Initiative for Literacy aims to enhance digital inclusion for individuals with low skills and literacy levels, focusing on five key areas: health, agriculture, government services, displaced populations, and environmental services. Through a review of 50 projects, barriers to digital inclusion, effective design processes, and the importance of local context were identified, emphasizing co-design and media variety to facilitate engagement. The initiative seeks to create effective digital solutions that can lead to improved literacy and livelihoods, with ongoing efforts to develop guidelines for fostering digital inclusion.

1. UNESCO EDUCATION SECTOR
Digital Inclusion Landscape Review
Presented at OEB, 8 Dec 2017
UNESCO-Pearson Initiative for Literacy

2. UNESCO EDUCATION SECTOR 2
About
The UNESCO-Pearson Initiative for Literacy Improved Livelihoods in a Digital World
is a partnership between UNESCO and Pearson to examine and highlight how
inclusive digital solutions can help people with low skills and/or low literacy
levels use technology in a way that supports skills development and, ultimately,
improves livelihoods.
The partnership is a key programme of the global Project Literacy campaign,
founded and convened by Pearson that aims to end illiteracy by 2030 through
partnerships and action.

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Why?
• 750m “illiterate” youth and adults globally
• Rise in digitisation - around 50% of world will be online in 2017
• Sustainable Development Goal 4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality
education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
• Target 4.6: By 2030, ensure that all youth and a substantial proportion of
adults, both men and women, achieve literacy and numeracy
• UNESCO has a strong focus on literacy – and in 2017 on literacy in a digital
world – see the International Literacy Prize winners

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Scope of landscape review
Five focus areas: health, agriculture, government services, displaced populations
and green and environmental services.
1. What does the literature reveal about the barriers to digital inclusion and the
broad design approaches to better include users who are low-skilled and low-
literate?
1. From the reviewed projects, in what ways have solutions been specifically
designed, developed, used and implemented?
2. From the reviewed projects, what emergent themes, barriers and
opportunities can be distilled?

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Methods and data sources
• From 50 projects, 32 selected for review.
• Categorised and mapped projects by: Sector, Country, Function, Delivery
channel(s), Target users, Affordances for low-skilled and/or low-literate users,
Intended impact, and digital competences.

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Known barriers to digital inclusion
Source literature
Proposed barriers
Lack of infrastructure Low income and affordability Limited users capability Lack of incentives
Connecting the Next Four Billion
(USAID, 2017)
X X X X
Connecting Refugees
(UNHCR, 2016)
X X X
Next Billion (IGF, 2015) X X X
(Usability)
Offline and Falling Behind
(McKinsey & Company, 2014)
X X X X
Digital Inclusion (GSMA, 2014) X X X X
Digital Enablement (Huawei, 2015) X
(Availability)
X X
(Ability)
X
(Appetite)
State of Connectivity 2015
(Internet.org, 2016)
X
(Availability, or proximity of
necessary Infrastructure,
including mobile access,
networks, adjacent
infrastructure, and access
innovation)
X
(Affordability, including costs of
devices and data packages relative
to income)
X
(Readiness, which includes skills,
awareness, and cultural and social
acceptance)
X
(Split between: Readiness and
Relevance (i.e., is useful, relatable,
and accessible content available to
the user))
Internet for All (World Economic
Forum, 2016)
X
(Under Skills, awareness, and
cultural acceptance)
X
(Split between: Skills, awareness,
and cultural acceptance and Local
adoption and use)
Connecting the World (PwC, 2016) X
(Availability)
X X
(Readiness, which includes skills,
awareness, and cultural and social
acceptance)
X
(Split between: Readiness and
Relevance)
ICT & SDGs (Ericsson & Columbia
University, 2016)
X X X
(Under Usage, or demand simulation
including local content and ICT skills)
X
(Under Usage, or demand
simulation including local content
and ICT skills)
Adapted from Schmida et al., 2017.

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Key findings: Design process
• Co-designed solutions promote local adoption
– “Design with the user” Principles for Digital Development.
– Examples: Khushi Baby and Digital Green training videos
• Content localization lowers literacy-related barriers
– Content must be relevant and also immediately applicable to their surroundings.
– Content must be understandable, e.g. not ‘meningitis immunization’ or ‘schistosomiasis’ .
– Example: All projects except for one
RFI necklace of Khushi Baby

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Key findings: The digital solution
15
9
10
Digital Solution Function Types
(n = number of case studies reviewed in each function)
Information service delivery Training and skills enhancement Other
10
21
12
Delivery Channels
(n = number of projects reviewed that included the delivery
channel)
Text/SMS App Voice/Audio

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Key findings: The digital solution
• A media mix promotes use by people with different competences and
proficiency levels
– When solutions offer a mix of media, such as text and audio, or text accompanied by bold and
relevant graphics, they are inclusive to a wider range of users.
– Examples: iCow and 3-2-1 Service
• Simple user interfaces create less intimidating user experiences
– Examples included offering audio-assisted navigation or context-appropriate graphics in the
mother tongue, and in some cases also in second languages.
– Examples: Talking Book Programme, Crop Specific Mobile Apps and Nano Ganesh
Interface of Talking Book device
Interface of Crop Specific Mobile Apps

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Key findings: User competences
DigComp 2.1: The Digital Competence Framework for Citizens
• Competence areas:
– Information and data literacy (35 instances)
– Communication and collaboration (10 instances)
– Digital content creation (4 instances)
– Safety (2 instances)
– Problem solving (2 instances)
• Proficiency levels:
– Foundation 1 (1 instance) / Foundation 2 (23 instances)
– Intermediate 3 (28 instances) / Intermediate 4
– Advanced 5 (1 instance) / Advanced 6
– Highly specialised 7 / Highly specialised 8

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Key findings: User competences
• Experiences mirrored across contexts,
e.g. The Talking Book Programme
• Need for ongoing support
– Users with low levels of skills and literacy, more than other users, need support when learning
to use digital solutions. Digital and face-to-face.
– Examples: MIRA Channel
Competence area Competency Proficiency level
Information and data
literacy
Browsing, searching and filtering data,
information and digital content
Foundation 2
Communication and
collaboration
Sharing through digital technologies Intermediate 3
Digital content creation Developing digital content Intermediate 3

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Key findings: Implementation environment
• Including women and rural users
– The digital solutions reviewed often considered the specific needs of women, particularly
in the health sector where many initiatives seek to improve maternal health. Further, the
agriculture and green and environmental practices sectors often target rural users.
– Examples: MIRA Worker Toolkit and Text4Baby
• Lack of awareness remains a challenge
– Limited awareness of digital solutions can severely curb uptake among the intended
audience, and low visibility is an ongoing challenge for the projects. Community
engagement, while time-consuming and resource-intensive, is an excellent way to raise
awareness.
– Example: Mobile Vaani
• Cost of access can be prohibitive
– A well-known barrier to the usage of digital solutions is the high costs of access. This cost
can increase when audio is used as a delivery channel and users need to make voice calls to
access information, or when large video files need to be downloaded. While key projects in
this review subsidized or bypassed such costs for end users, this was not seen in every
instance.
– Examples: Digital Green and Farmer Training App
Interface of MIRA Channel
Interface of Mobile Vaani

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Opportunities
• Experiment with the possibilities offered through new technologies.
– Especially voice-based solutions, chatbots, AI
• Coordinate digital solution development and implementation efforts.
• Establish government support to raise awareness.
• Stimulate both the supply and demand sides of service delivery for
populations with low levels of skills and literacy.
– Includes a range of stakeholders
– Incentives/drivers/barriers for providers of digital solutions (supply side):
• M-Agrit Toolkit (GSMA), Airtel Green SIM
– Incentives/drivers/barriers for users of digital solutions (demand side):
• Stimulating cultural acceptance, e.g. Khushi Baby
• See digital solutions as key elements in creating a more literate environment:
– Supply side: digital usage provides opportunities for developing and practicing literacy skills
– Demand side: by offering access to essential services through digital platforms, the incentive to
learn the needed skills is created.

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In summary
• Appropriately designed solutions provide an entry point into digital activities.
• There is a thread between peoples’ needs; digital solutions that support the
meeting of those needs; skills and literacy development through usage; and
livelihoods improvement.
• Need to study the link between usage and literacy development.
• Assumption: Ideally, with time and usage, as the users develop their skills they
will feel more comfortable to move along the spectrum to using more
technically and cognitively demanding solution  virtuous circle.

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Case studies

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Initial takeaways from
case studies
• Skills benchmarking is important
• Basic usage, rich data
• Let the tech help with quality control
for inclusion of low-skilled and low-
literate users
• Content (testing) is king
• Low-literate users can also be content
creators
• Leverage “infomediaries” and build
local capacity

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Next steps
• Development of Guidelines for Digital Inclusion for Low-skilled and
Low-literate People
• Public draft for input: February 2018
• Workshop at Mobile Learning Week: 26-30 March 2018
• Released September 2018
We need you
• Give input into guidelines
• Implement the guidelines
• Give us feedback

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Thank you
Steven Vosloo, Senior Project Officer
se.vosloo@unesco.org
Project website: tinyurl.com/unesco-pearson
@UNESCO
@pearson
@rewritinglives