In the multilingual environments of Africa, national literacy policies vary in terms of the attention they give to the roles and purposes of local, national and international languages. In the context of the global Sustainable Development Agenda, the instrumental purpose of literacy is often assumed, if not explicitly spelled out. At community levels, debates continue over the usefulness and relative merits of using a local or a non-local language for literacy acquisition. This article addresses the intersection of national-level literacy policies and the purposes which literacy in the local language serves, actually or potentially, highlighting the importance of communication and interaction in development. Issues of literacy in development and of languages in development provide the framework for examining particular contexts. Drawing on policy data from three African countries of francophone West and Central Africa (Cameroon, Morocco and Senegal), the authors ask to what extent policies are clear on the purposes of literacy in the languages used in each of these countries, in what ways local-language literacy is or is not promoted within the multilingual context, and how far the intended purposes are actually implemented on the ground.