NBDB’s National Alliance of Reading Advocates (NARA) recently launched its 2025-2030 Agenda: Building a Reading Philippines from the Ground Up after a successful first year run

 PHILIPPINES – THE National Book Development Board’s National Alliance of Reading Advocates (NARA) is pushing to promote access and reading of Philippine books in the country. 

In its State of the Reading Nation Address (SORNA) for the first semester of this year, NARA presented its progress in its 2025-2030 Agenda to further promote the access and reading of Philippine books by expanding access, foundational skills, and remediation through community-driven solutions, sustained partnerships, and scaling up of effective models. 

“The NBDB continues to push for a stronger national readership by mobilizing its allies from around the country. The reading gap that we have now–as we have learned from recent surveys–deserves our immediate attention and action,” said NBDB Executive Director Charisse Aquino-Tugade. “This is exactly why we formed NARA: to mobilize both the public and private sectors in reversing this reading gap. It’s about responding to the issue at hand now, all while nurturing the next generations of readers.” 

NARA is a project of the NBDB’s Readership Development Division, composed of 152 readership advocates and serves as an integral part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to boost the love for reading in the country. The alliance covers schools, universities, national government agencies, local government units, non-profit and small-scale organizations, and advocacy arms of corporations.

NARA’s Best Practices

“NARA has been instrumental in connecting us with partners who support our mission and advocacy at the center. The NBDB provided valuable insights, including notes on monthly surveys for book requests, a book return policy, and a library etiquette or code of conduct,” said Natalie Tabayan, Co-Lead of Better World Smokey Mountain (BWSM), an effort of AHA! Learning Center, which is one of NARA’s active members. 

AHA! Learning Center is a non-profit organization that launched a reading campaign in Tondo, Manila last year to cultivate the love for reading and establish consistent reading habits among BWSM’s students. The initiative is an empathy-informed learning system, offering academic and social-emotional interventions for children, as well as support system skills development for parents and teachers. 

With the help of other network members, AHA! Learning Center has significantly increased its collection of Filipino storybooks and improved its book spaces by adding more shelves, posters, and designs. It even established a dedicated reading corner for mothers, stocked with Filipino pocket books, Liwayway magazines, and other local fiction books. 

“Through the NARA network, the Corazon Sanchez Atayde Memorial Foundation (CSAMF) had the opportunity to connect with like-minded organizations nationwide—sharing best practices, exchanging insights, and fostering meaningful collaborations in literacy development,” shared Rylene Ngeta-a, CSAMF’s Program Director, an active NARA member.

Over the past year, the organization has reached 910 learners who are either struggling or have the least access to reading support from different areas such as Pasig City, Tawi-Tawi, Rizal Province, Bulacan, Pampanga, and Mountain Province. 

Ngeta-a emphasized that through NARA members’ shared innovations, authors, writers, and readers in many areas have deeper engagement with Philippine books.