For fifty years, International Literacy Day hascelebrated literacy as an empowering force forwomen and men and for society as a whole.

　　五十年来，国际扫盲日活动大力宣传扫盲工作，强调扫盲是增强女性、男性以及整个社会权能的重要力量。

　　We have seen great progress since theproclamation of International Literacy Day byUNESCO in 1966. The world's population hasincreased substantially, but the number of youngadults without literacy skills decreased by 25 percent between 1990 and 2015. There has beenmovement in enhancing women's opportunities to acquire literacy – 43 countries have shownmajor improvements in gender parity. The global Education for All movement spearheadedmuch positive change.

　　自从1966年教科文组织宣布国际扫盲日以来，我们已经取得了长足的进步。虽然世界人口大幅增长，但青年文盲的数量在1990至2015年期间减少了25%。各国掀起运动，为妇女提供更多习得读写技能的机会——有43个国家

　　But not enough. There remain today 758 million adults who cannot read or write a simplesentence. Two thirds of them are women. On the side-lines of the global village, they receivenone of the benefits of globalization and suffer all its costs. These women and men are morevulnerable to ill heath, exploitation and human rights abuse. They are more likely to beunemployed and paid less. Unable to read or write, they are held back from their full potential, and whole communities are locked into vicious cycles of poverty that lay the conditions forviolence and strife.

　　在性别均等方面取得了明显改善。全球范围内的全民教育运动引领了巨大的积极变化。 但这还不够。今天仍有7.58亿成年人不会读写简单的句子，其中有三分之二是女性。他们处于地球村的边缘，不仅没有从全球化进程中获益，反而为此付出了代价。这些女性和男性更容易遭受疾病、剥削和侵犯人权行为的伤害。他们更有可能失业或收入较低。由于不会读写，他们无法充分实现自己的潜能，整个社区也受困于助长暴力和冲突的贫穷的恶性循环。