WASHINGTON, D.C. - On Friday, November 18th during International Education Week, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Rajiv Shah will launch All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development at USAID Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The partners have committed over $20 million for this challenge to promote childhood literacy around the world.

One hundred seventy-one million people could be lifted out of poverty if all students in low income countries left school with basic reading skills - equivalent to a 12 percent cut in global poverty. To improve student reading outcomes and access to future economic opportunities, USAID and its partners, including World Vision and another partner to be announced shortly, will aim to catalyze cost-effective innovations to promote literacy among children in the primary grades.

WHO

Dr. Rajiv Shah, USAID Administrator
Kent Hill, World Vision Senior VP of International Programs
Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education
Nita Lowey, Member of Congress (D-NY 18)
Gene B. Sperling, Director of the National Economic Council and Assistant to the President for Economic Policy
Nisha Biswal, USAID Assistant Administrator for Asia
Aneesh Chopra, White House U.S. Chief Technology Officer
Leland Melvin, NASA Associate Administrator for Education

Jeopardy! Host Alex Trebek will serve as Master of Ceremonies

WHEN

Friday, November 18, 2011
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

WHERE

Ronald Reagan Building Amphitheater
1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20004

RSVPs are encouraged and should be sent to USAIDPressOfficers@usaid.gov. For more information about the event, please contact USAID Press Officer Drew Bailey at anbailey@usaid.gov or 202-712-0961 .

For more information about All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development, please visit: www.AllChildrenReading.org. We will also provide frequent updates throughout International Education week on our Impact Blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts (hashtag #allchildrenreading).