Read and Earn Federation for UNESCO
— (UNESCO REF)
Our Mandate
The Read and Earn Federation for UNESCO (UNESCO REF), established in 2009 under the auspices of the UNESCO ACC Framework, is a multidimensional and multisectoral institute entrusted with advancing the mandates of the United Nations and UNESCO across education, science, culture, and human resource development.
Operating as a recognized institution within the UNESCO ecosystem, UNESCO REF embodies UNESCO's principles and frameworks while exercising full legal and financial autonomy. This independence ensures integrity of purpose, strategic consistency, and long term institutional gravitas, while its alignment with UNESCO's global mission guarantees credibility and authority.
UNESCO REF's structured federation, encompassing schools, community institutions, and accredited representatives across all states and the Federal Capital Territory, provides a coordinated national mechanism for translating the United Nations and UNESCO's international frameworks into ground level programmes of measurable impact. This institutional presence ensures that global goals are not merely articulated but are implemented with authority, diplomacy, and demonstrable results.
By virtue of its establishment in 2009 under the UNESCO ACC Framework, UNESCO REF is formally recognized as part of the UNESCO ecosystem. It is not a subsidiary body, but an autonomous institution of record, strategically aligned to deliver on the United Nations Global Goals with clarity, credibility, and institutional gravitas.
Not just an act of studying — but something you build a life with.
Vision, Mission & Goals
Our Vision
A world in which reading is not merely an academic exercise, but a recognised and rewarding career pathway, one that generates knowledge, drives economic participation, and positions every citizen as an active contributor to the United Nations Global Goals.
Our Mission
To advance the mandate of the United Nations and UNESCO through rigorous, inclusive, globally relevant programmes, including our Flagship Programme, The SIP‑ALPHA, cultivating competencies of citizens across education, science, culture, and human resource development, in full alignment with the United Nations Global Goals.
Short Term Goal
To make reading a career, giving people everywhere the real opportunity to earn a living through reading, writing, knowledge sharing, and learning. Where picking up a book is not just an act of education, but the beginning of a livelihood.
Long Term Goal
A future where anyone, no matter where they are born, how much money they have, or what language they speak, can build a life through reading. UNESCO REF exists to prove that reading is not just something you do in school. It is something you can do for a living, and in doing so, contribute to a better world for everyone.
05 · Cooperation
Working Together
for a Common Goal
The Read and Earn Federation for UNESCO operates in purposeful cooperation with Government entities, Non-Governmental Organizations, Civil Society Organizations, and the private sector, engaging the full constellation of state and non-state actors whose mandates, resources, and institutional reach bear consequence for the advancement of the United Nations Global Goals.
This cooperative orientation is not peripheral to the Institute's mission, it is foundational to it. UNESCO REF functions as a convening authority, aligning interests, mobilising complementary capacities, and coordinating action across sectors toward shared developmental objectives, ensuring that international commitments are translated into coordinated, measurable, and enduring outcomes at every level of society.
The strategic and fiduciary coordination of this architecture is entrusted to The Lichfield Partners & Associates, a UNESCO REF Chartered Strategic Institute and the designated fiduciary custodian of the SIP‑ALPHA initiative. A further expression of this mandate is the New Partnership Development for Education and Youths (NEPAD‑EY), galvanising partners across the educational and developmental landscape toward the United Nations Global Goals.