By Steve Hawe, Beanstalk's Director of Marketing and Communications

Last week I attended the European Literacy Conference in Amsterdam, which was organised by ELINET (the European Literacy Policy Network).

ELINET was set up in February 2014 and brings together 77 partner organisations (including Beanstalk) from 28 European countries engaged in literacy policy-making and reading promotion in Europe.

The 2016 European Literacy Conference’s main goal was to share the results of this two-year project funded by the EU Commission, and shift the focus from idea generation to idea execution – providing reliable and innovative insights on how to improve literacy in Europe.

Speakers included HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, Mr. Jens Nymand Christensen and Mr. Vladimir Garkov from the Directorate General for Education and Culture (European Commission), and author Abdelkader Benali.

It was a wonderful chance to hear more about all the research and tools that have been developed as part of the ELINET project. These include:

• a European Framework of Good Practice along with examples of good practice across Europe
• advice and tools that support fundraising and awareness-raising for literacy
• in-depth research on literacy in each European country

and much more.

You can find this wealth of knowledge and experience on the ELINET website and watch a film about the project. The conference also saw the launch of the Declaration of European Citizens’ Right to Literacy.

It was a fantastic opportunity to meet with international experts in the field of literacy and share ideas. I look forward to seeing how the network develops.

See a selection of speeches, workshop presentations, videos and photos from the European Literacy Conference .