WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), in partnership with World Vision and the Australian government, launched the second round of All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD). This international grant competition will make available a total of $2.7 million for innovations and programs that leverage the transformative power of technology to leapfrog existing infrastructure challenges and empower children to read.

Applications are now being accepted at www.AllChildrenReading.org.

“Two hundred and fifty million children in the world are unable to read--an unacceptable fact that will limit their potential for the rest of their lives,” said USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah. “We are calling on entrepreneurs and innovators around the world to focus on this challenge and design groundbreaking new technologies and approaches that open doors of opportunity for every child everywhere by giving them the power to read.”

This second round of ACR GCD continues to focus on the creation and expansion of scalable, low-cost education tools that improve literacy opportunities for children in the early grades. Emphasis will be placed on improving reading through technology-based, cost-effective innovations from the global science, technology, education, and broader development communities in three focus areas:

• Mother tongue instruction and reading materials
• Family and community engagement
• Children with disabilities

In conjunction with this second grant competition, the All Children Reading partners announced a $100,000 ‘Enabling Writers’ prize that calls for organizations and individuals to create innovative software that can be used to draft early grade reading materials in local languages. This initial prize – designed to amplify the overall initiative – is the first of many themed prizes to be offered throughout All Children Reading’s second round.

The All Children Reading Grand Challenge for Development was established by USAID in 2011 to seek solutions to improve reading skills for children in the early grades, helping USAID reach its goal of getting 100 million children reading by 2015.

To learn more about All Children Reading, the second grant competition, and the Enabling Writers prize go to: www.allchildrenreading.org.