The fact that 20 percent of the world s adults are deprived of it (literacy) should fill us all with shame . Kofi Annan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Read details of these issues in the book.The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) estimates that close to 862 million adults, (people over the age of 15 years) were illiterate in the year 2000. The stark reality is that one in five adults on the planet and tens of millions of school aged children do not read and write. The objectives of this study was to find out the level of participation of women in literacy programmes in Savelugu-Nanton District and to determine the obstacles which prevent women s full participation in literacy programmes.