IBBY Worldwide in 2020

by | Nov 12, 2020 | IBBY Reports

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On 12 September, over 120 delegates from all over the world, across ten time zones,  attended the General Assembly on Zoom. President Mingzhou Zhang welcomed our international community and reflected upon the extraordinary circumstances of 2020 and the impact of the pandemic on children around the world. 

The General Assembly was due to take place in Moscow as part of IBBY’s World Congress. We look forward to now attending in September 2021. ibbycongress2020.org

Despite a difficult year, IBBY International is delighted to welcome five new national sections in 2020: Sri Lanka, Cameroon, Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Vietnam. This brings the IBBY family to a global community of 81 countries.

The results for IBBY International’s Executive Committee were announced and we are happy that IBBY UK’s Sophie Hallam was re-elected for a second term and has also been selected as IBBY’s Vice President alongside IBBY Pakistan’s Basarat Midhat Kazim. Their role will be to support President Mingzhou Zhang and the Secretariat to build upon IBBY’s international profile, expand its fundraising initiatives and support key strategic areas of business development. Details of the 2020-2022 IBBY Executive Committee can be found here.

You can read other highlights of the General Assembly here:  http://www.ibby.org.uk/ibbyagm2020

Read more about IBBY World Activities in 2020:

Scarves for IBBY
IBBY’s most recent fundraising appeal “Scarves for IBBY” has been a great success. Ten of the world’s greatest children’s book illustrators, including Quentin Blake, created limited-edition scarves in support of IBBY’s work around the world. Scarves can be ordered here.

Children in Crisis
Alongside IBBY’s day-to-day activities, all of which have continued throughout the pandemic, it has continued to respond to worldwide events through its Children in Crisis fund. This year the disaster in Beirut and the continued effort to support children in Palestine have been key recipients of its funded projects. After IBBY Lebanon’s appeal at the General Assembly, IBBY UK have partnered with Book Aid International to send over 10,000 books to rebuild libraries in Beirut. The need is still great in many places across the world: donations for Children in Crisis are gratefully received. www.ibby.org/about/donations.

Silent Books Project
IBBY Italia’s Silent Books project continues to expand and develop to support the arrival of refugees into Europe through Lampedusa and Italy, as well as being an excellent information resource on wordless books. Their new project, BOOKS ON BOARD, will distribute portable sets of books for children on the rescue boats.

UN SDG Book Club
IBBY continues to support the UN SDG Book Club, which aims to use books as a tool to encourage children ages 6-12 to learn about the principles of the Sustainable Development Goals through a curated reading list of books from around the world. To see the latest selection go to: www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sdgbookclub/.

Frankfurt Book Fair
The 2020 Frankfurt Book Fair went digital – so did IBBY. The 2020 IBBY panel session comprised three parts: Patsy Aldana talked about some of the IBBY Children in Crisis projects; Junko Yokota talked to HCA 2020 Award winner Jacqueline Woodson; and, Rachel Martin talked to Sherri Aldis, Michiel Kolman and Liz Page about the SDG Book Club. To view the sessions go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26ltvowudqU.