[Icaeaeducationdevp2015] [13] Werner Mauch

Jue Mar 20 09:48:15 UYT 2014

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ICAE Virtual Seminar

“Adult Education and Development: Post 2015”

Adult and lifelong learning and the post-2015 Agenda – opportunities and
challenges

Werner Mauch, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning

At a time when post-2015 strategies are taking shape the situation may look
quite optimistic and promising from the CONFINTEA perspective: Many of the
actors present at Belém in 2009 were already well aware of the fact that the
mid-term point of the Belém Framework for Action (BFA) (i.e. six years after
CONFINTEA VI, 2009) would coincide with the expiry of the EFA and MDG
time-lines in 2015. With its (implicit) perspective oriented towards
CONFINTEA VII in 2021, the BFA was hence already predestined to represent an
element of international educational cooperation reaching beyond 2015 while
reiterating the relevance of adult learning and education for future global
efforts in connection with providing lifelong learning for all. The BFA’s
central message that “the role of lifelong learning is critical in
addressing global educational issues and challenges”[i] seemed to be
perfectly in line with the growing worldwide interest in lifelong learning
and its relevance within education agendas. Meanwhile a strong
recommendation has been put forward concerning the new UN Development Goals
to aim for quality education and lifelong learning in order to end poverty
within a truly universal approach.[ii] 

The UNESCO Medium-Term Strategy 2014–2021[iii] provides another promising
perspective for the years to come. For UNESCO’s Education sector three
strategic objectives are formulated which comprise a) developing systems to
foster quality lifelong learning for all, b) empowering learners to be
creative and responsible systems, and c) shaping the future education
agenda, explicitly in order “to ensure that education remains a global
priority beyond the 2015 target date, as a basic human right and as a
prerequisite for peace and sustainable development”[iv]. UNESCO’s new
position paper on education post-2015 also includes a strong proposal to
support youth and adult literacy with the aim that “All youth and adults
achieve literacy, numeracy and other basic skills at a proficiency level
necessary to fully participate in a given society and for further
learning”[v].

The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) will play its role within
UNESCO according to its mandate, namely “to promote the recognition of and
create the conditions for the exercise of the right to education and
learning”. To that end it will “undertake research, capacity-building,
networking and publication on lifelong learning with a focus on adult and
continuing education, literacy and non-formal basic education”.[vi] 

Within this context, the ground should be prepared for assuring that adult
learning and education will be a crucial element within the efforts of the
international community to strive for a peaceful and sustainable future. 

Are the perspectives really that bright?

A closer look at the proposed new development goals mentioned above shows
that three out of four indicators on the proposed Goal 3 (“Provide quality
education and lifelong learning”) focus on children and formal
education[vii] – only! And indicator no. 4 addresses the development of
skills “needed for work” – only! Adult literacy as a field of necessary
action is virtually absent, despite the evidence that more than 780 million
people do not have at their disposal the basic skills they need to actually
participate in their communities and to take their life and destiny “into
their own hands”. Despite all efforts to help understand universal literacy
as a condition for sustainable development, adult literacy is still far from
being recognised as a decisive field for further investment of (notoriously
scarce!) resources. A few coins might end up in the hands of those who
attempt to improve their standing vis-à-vis the labour markets.
Consequently, adult learning and education would be reduced to skills
development only. 

UNESCO’s present precarious financial situation has implications for its
programme implementation. The underlying assumption is that in principle it
will be possible to maintain the foreseen programmes by just reducing their
scope. Further efforts will be invested in raising extrabudgetary funds
which should help to bridge the gap but would also increase dependencies on
donors. As usual, this will furthermore mean that “structures” will become
“leaner”, but that at the same time further cost will be incurred in terms
of available human resources (not to mention consequences concerning
“intrinsic” and “extrinsic” motivation) as well as in terms effectiveness of
programmes. It is important to note that programmes in support of lifelong
learning policies and literacy have still been rated high by UNESCO Member
States and have consequently been prioritised. Lower priority, however, is
given to the promotion of the right to education, an area where regular
funding has been reduced.

UIL has just finalised its programme for the coming years, during which the
Institute will continue to build on its three programmes[viii] and their
achievements. The focus of the ALE programme will remain on the CONFINTEA
Follow-up. For the nearer future, the following principal activities are
foreseen:

1)      Completing the cycle of Regional Follow-up Meetings (by the meeting
for the Arab States in September 2014) and consolidating the results of
those regions where follow-up meetings have already taken place, i.e. Latin
America and the Caribbean (2011), Africa (2012), Asia and the Pacific (2013)
and Europe and North America (2013.). The key objective will be to support
the further implementation of the Belém Framework for Action with a focus on
priority action points identified by the regional meetings.

2)      Revision of the 1976 Recommendation on the Development of Adult
Education as requested by the Belém Framework for Action.

3)      Preparing the next issue of the Global Report for Adult Learning and
Education (until the end of 2015), i.e. collecting and analysing national
progress reports.

With its limited resources UIL will rely on increased cooperation within
UNESCO (with HQs, Field Offices and Institutes) as well as building on
further cooperation with partners. In general it seems likely that there
will be a wide range of opportunities to further promote the translation of
the concept of lifelong learning into educational practice. At the same time
we will also see more competition among actors in the search for funding for
activities that are using “lifelong learning” as an accepted label. In the
field of adult learning and education there might be increased opportunities
for supporting work which is related more or less directly to skills
development and youth. At the same time provision of literacy for those
women and men who are most at risk to be neglected by educational practice
may even become more difficult. Realisation of the right to education and
learning for all is likely to remain more of a long-term expectation than a
valid operational aim. These tensions are not new, the mission of making
adult learning and education a recognised and indispensable component of
lifelong learning systems will continue. UIL will take on its role as
mandated by the Belém Framework for Action – and continue to foster its
long-established partnership with ICAE and its branches to that end. All
this is being undertaken in the conviction that the power of adult learning
is in fact the key energy for living and learning for a viable future as
stated in Belém. 

  _____  

  _____  

[i] See Belém Framework for Action
(http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002266/226628e.pdf)  p.5, pt. 7

[ii] See the Report of the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the
Post-2015 Development Agenda
http://www.un.org/sg/management/pdf/HLP_P2015_Report.pdf, 

[iii] UNESCO 37 C/4, Draft Medium-Term Strategy 2014–2021
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002200/220031e.pdf  

[iv] Ibid., p. 24

[v] See  <http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002266/226628e.pdf>
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002266/226628e.pdf p. 4

[vi] From the statutes of UIL, p. 2, see
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001448/144880e.pdf#xml=http://www.unes
co.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?database=extd
<http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001448/144880e.pdf#xml=http://www.une
sco.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?database=extd&set=5325EEFE_0_17&hits_rec=3&hits
_lng=eng> &set=5325EEFE_0_17&hits_rec=3&hits_lng=eng 

[vii] Report of the High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015
Development Agenda, op. cit., p.36

[viii] Lifelong Learning Policies and Strategies (LLPS), Literacy and Basic
Skills (LBS) and Adult Learning and Education (ALE).

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