In a study of perceived major global issues, illiteracy sits a long way down the list in 18th despite being proven by the UN to underpin the vast majority of those issues sat higher up in the list.

People just don’t see it as a problem despite 1 in 10 people worldwide being unable to read a single sentence. It is impossible for many to fathom because we learn to read and write so early it is taken for granted. There is a perception it is just the inability to read a book or write a letter so there is no need to take action, but in reality the true impact of illiteracy is far more devastating.

While the focus on gender issues has increased, people don’t understand the potential transformative power of improved literacy on women’s lives all over the world. By raising the importance of literacy we can improve gender equality globally.

The Alphabet of Illiteracy campaign juxtaposes the shocking reality of illiteracy with the childlike aesthetic of the alphabet, the foundation of literacy.

It centers on the core film, for which we repurposed the lyrics of “A, you’re Adorable”, with the chilling consequences of illiteracy. A large number of the issues we cover within the alphabet disproportionately affect women.

The campaign launched on 23rd February 2016 with the release of our campaign film via a number of seeding platforms across the US and UK. At the same time, prominent gender activist Lily Cole launched the campaign with a rousing address at the Houses of Parliament in London.

Individual letter posts and partner stories allowed us to focus on real women affected by illiteracy and their positive stories of change. We targeted people based on their links to specific gender issues and actively drove the debate in social to reinforce key points.

- The campaign has created an entirely new conversation around illiteracy and one that lands the surprisingly negative impact it is having on gender inequality

- Brought on board charity partners including 28 Too Many, Womankind, Veerni Project & Afghan Women’s Resource Centre

- Over 6.5 million film views across platforms

- Completed view rate twice the industry benchmark.

- 35,000 shares of the film

- 14,000 signatures and shares of unique names including Sarah Brown, Lily Cole and Richard Branson

- 186 media articles including CNN, BBC, Channel Four, Times and Guardian

- Lily appeared on CNN on International Women’s Day

- Total audience reach of 462million across social and PR

- Traffic to women’s charity partner websites up by 200%

- Project Literacy have been invited to sit on the UN Global Alliance for Literacy which puts improved literacy at the heart of achieving the Global Development Goals

Improved literacy is the closest thing to a ‘silver bullet’ in addressing global gender inequality. For example, if all women had primary school education, child marriages would drop by 1/6. In Sub-Saharan Africa alone that's half a million girls. Literacy breaks the cycle of oppression leading to issues like child labour, FGM and sex trafficking.

Illiteracy is proven by the UN to underpin the majority of the world’s biggest problems and it is holding women back all over the world. We needed to draw attention to the power of illiteracy as a meta-problem solver

Our strategy was to land this link in a way that could not be ignored or forgotten and get people to take notice of illiteracy.

We would drive a conversation among the millennial audience in the USA and UK, because they have the loudest share of voice online and the biggest propensity to give charitably.

Illiteracy is sexist. There are 757 million people in the world who are unable to read or write a single sentence, and two thirds of them are women.

In some countries this rises to a staggering 85%.

The perceived role of women in society plays a large part in the gendered disparity of literacy levels, and has a devastating impact from an early age. At best, it means girls are denied the right to education, and at worst it leads to sex trafficking, child brides, rape or murder.

Raising literacy levels has been proven to have a positive impact on a broad range of women’s issues. Increased literacy is a key component of a gender-equal future.

Project Literacy is the flagship CSR campaign of Pearson, the world’s biggest learning company. They have convened a collection of NGOs working to address illiteracy with many having clear gender remits in countries like Afghanistan and India.

Despite the scale of the problem, people are unaware of the barrier illiteracy creates to gender parity. Our objectives were to raise awareness of illiteracy and start a conversation about key issues linked to gender in order to drive action to address this barrier.