Economic Summit Targets Illiteracy

Leaders of the world’s largest economies committed their nations today to eradicating illiteracy around the world, targeting the estimated 120 million children who are out of school and the 880 million adults who cannot read or write.

They announced their “global initiative” on education during the final day of the Group of 8’s annual economic summit here in Okinawa.

Helping to lead the way, the Clinton administration this morning unveiled several programs to expand educational opportunities around the world.

These include:

* A $300-million Department of Agriculture nutritional program, to be administered by the United Nations World Food Program, to feed 9 million children in impoverished nations and encourage them to attend school. Gene Sperling, who heads President Clinton’s National Economic Council, called the expenditure “a down payment,” adding: “This needs to be a global effort.”

* A $1-billion increase in the World Bank’s lending for basic education in developing countries, a doubling of current levels.

* A 50% increase, to $55 million a year, in other U.S. assistance programs in Clinton’s fiscal year 2001 budget designed to strengthen education initiatives in impoverished countries, especially where abusive child labor practices are prevalent.

In their communique, the leaders described education as the most powerful weapon against poverty and disease, and they said one high-priority means of combating both is to quickly spread information technology throughout the world.

Toward that end, the leaders called for the creation of an international digital opportunity task force that would set concrete goals and coordinate efforts, including with the private sector, to provide training and access to computer technology.

As a sign of the critical need to expand the digital revolution, international aid officials pointed to studies showing that, of the 332 million active online users, less than 1% are in Africa, and that less than 5% of computers connected to the Internet are in developing countries. In addition, whereas the developed world has 49.5 telephone lines for every 100 persons, low-income countries have as few as 1.4 lines for every 100 persons--a major impediment toward closing the digital divide.

The G-8 leaders spent a good portion of their Saturday sessions talking about information technology and ways to bridge the global disparity, according to Lael Brainard, the deputy White House national economic advisor.

“Clearly, they are sending a message to the world that all people should have access to basic education, to modern technology and the tools to combat infectious diseases,” Brainard said.

On the education initiative, the leaders set 2015 as the target year for providing good-quality basic education for all, including a 50% improvement in adult literacy by then.

They also want to eliminate gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005. Education experts say that up to two-thirds of the 150 million children who start primary school but drop out before they learn to read and write are girls.

This is not the first time that the international community has decided to tackle education as a means of combating poverty and disease around the world.

Many activists in the field remember too well that world leaders have made similar pledges--as recently as in 1990, at a conference in Thailand, where they pledged to provide universal education by 2000.

“They failed, and the facts speak for themselves,” said Seth Amgott, an official with Oxfam International, a network of private international development agencies.

The G-8 nations said more must be done to fight poverty, stating a target date of 2015 for reducing the share of the world population living in extreme poverty to half its 1990 level. Though the percentage of impoverished in developing countries declined from 29% in 1990 to 24% in 1998, 1.2 billion people are living on less than a dollar a day and there are growing disparities between regions, the summit communique said.

The education commitment here builds on the goals of an international conference on education in April in Dakar, Senegal, that was attended by more than 1,000 activists representing 145 nations.

Conferees there adopted a framework for action that called for national plans of action and as much as $8 billion a year in international assistance for 10 years.

Despite the modest financial commitments made in Okinawa, Amgott hailed the education initiative.

“We think this is exactly the kind of thing they should be doing,” he said in an interview.

Besides education, global security issues dominated much of the discussions at the Okinawa summit.

During their bilateral meeting Saturday morning, for instance, Clinton and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori talked almost exclusively about bilateral and regional security issues, such as North Korea, according to Jim Steinberg, the president’s deputy national security advisor.

“They touched only briefly on economic issues,” Steinberg said.

Similarly, Clinton’s meeting Friday with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin focused largely on security concerns.

The communique issued at the close of the summit said the leaders hope to develop, at their next meeting, an international financing plan for plutonium management and disposition. It also expressed hope for success in arms reduction treaties.

Many of the leaders praised Clinton for hosting the ongoing Mideast peace talks.

The president met today with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and then attended a final session of the G-8 leaders before flying home to Washington.

He is due to arrive this afternoon and soon thereafter may return to Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains, where the Israeli and Palestinian delegations are continuing their peace talks in Clinton’s absence.

*

Times staff writer Valerie Reitman in Okinawa contributed to this story.

* MIDEAST SUMMIT

Clinton returns to Camp David this afternoon, where at least a partial deal will be sought. A4