Strategic collaboration for technology-supported development and use of multilingual children’s storybooks in Kenya

Abstract

Literacy is critical to achieving the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals butmany countries have not achieved globally desirable literacy levels. In this paper I describe acollaborative strategy that the South African Institute for Distance Education (SAIDE) adoptedto implement the African Storybook (ASb) in sub-Saharan Africa in response to the shortageof multilingual literacy resources. The paper focuses on Kenya, drawing on my experience asthe ASb Partner Development Coordinator and from ASb partner reports. One of the findingsis that nationwide literacy programmes may not meet specific literacy needs of children fromhard-to-reach communities. Other innovative and unique initiatives need to intervene througha collaborative bottom-up approach. I conclude with some lessons learned, achievements andchallenges.