Program design in nonformal education must take into account the cultural context in which it exists. In developing countries, it can neither reject all values of Western civilization (an impossible task), nor can it embrace Western values without regard to native cultures. The challenge, especially in literacy education, is to become culturally conscious, to preserve what is of value in indigenous cultures and traditions, to renew what must be renewed, and to develop a mutually regenerative relationship between traditional values and science and technology. The educational agenda for all non-Western cultures must support the old culture as it subverts it and reinforce the tradition while renewing it. Practical suggestions for program design in culturally sensitive nonformal education stress the following: (1) building a learning environment; (2) defining needs; (3) defining objectives; (4) selecting clients; (5) choosing content and language; (6) selecting methods and materials; (7) establishing institutional and social arrangements; (8) selecting settings for learning; (9) recruiting instructors; (10) training workers and providing orientation to leaders; (11) motivating teachers and learners and mobilizing resources; and (12) conducting evaluations and developing feedback. The key to the process is participation in the program design by the learners, teachers, local leaders, and extension workers in a genuinely collaborative network of relationships. (25 references) (KC)