The Global Book Supply Chain – Analysis from Malawi and Zambia

Please join the Global Book Alliance for the next Open Book Series Webinar: The Global Book Supply Chain: Analysis from Malawi and Zambia on our new date: Thursday, December 2nd, from 9 AM EST, 2 PM GMT, 3 PM CET and WAT, 5 PM EAT.

The GBA, with the support of USAID and country partners in Malawi and Zambia, will share updates on their work to date in understanding the Global Book Supply Chain with a special focus on learnings and outputs from studies in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Literacy is a basic right that empowers individuals and benefits society. In recognition of this central role in development, the Global Book Alliance was founded to guarantee that children everywhere have the learning materials they need to learn to read by 2030. This ambitious vision demands market-based transformation in book planning, development, production, procurement, distribution, and use—a complex and interconnected set of processes and actors we call the Book Chain.

Since 2018 the GBA has been working to bring this vision to life through a number of flagship initiatives. One of these, led by Global Book Alliance in Action and supported through funding partner USAID, is working to understand book supply chains across a number of priority countries and bring learnings to the global book industry to stop gaps in the book chain and ensure easier access to quality books for children around the world. To date, supply chain analyses have been undertaken in Cambodia, Jordan, Malawi and Zambia with ongoing studies currently taking place in Tanzania and Nigeria. Through this work the challenges and barriers have been better understood and a number of common themes have been identified that will be explored.