Today, the United States Library of Congress announced it has selected the Pakistan Reading Project, a literacy program funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), as the International Literacy Program of the Year for 2020.

Over the past seven years, working in tandem with Pakistani education officials, USAID's Pakistan Reading Project has improved the reading skills of 1.7 million Pakistani students by delivering instructional materials to classrooms, training teachers in new techniques, and encouraging schools to dedicate more classroom time for reading. Implemented by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), along with Creative Associates International, World Learning, and the Institute of Rural Management, this early-grade literacy project also has worked closely with the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to institutionalize positive change by improving policies and systems to improve reading instruction across the national, provincial, and local levels.

In 2013, the Library of Congress created the Literacy Awards to honor organizations that are promoting literacy and reading in the United States and internationally. The project's main implementing partner, the IRC will receive an award of $50,000 from the Library of Congress.