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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=ES-MX link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;background:white'><b><i><span lang=ES style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:black'>Para espaņol favor usar google translator </span></i></b><span style='font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;background:white'><b><i><span lang=FR style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:black'>Veuillez utiliser google translator pour traduire les articles qui ne sont pas en franįais</span></i></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal;background:white'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:#3939EF'> </span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-family:"Helvetica","sans-serif";color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif";color:#3939EF'>ICAE Virtual Seminar<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:18.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif";color:#3939EF'>“Adult Education and Development: Post 2015”<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif";color:#3939EF'>African Adult Education CSOs’ Presence in the Post 2015 Process Needs a Revamp<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Cambria","serif";color:#3939EF'>Reflection by Robert Jjuuko, ILLALA III Graduate, Uganda</span></b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt'> <b>(1)</b></span><b><span lang=EN-US><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><b><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><b><i><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>Introduction<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><i><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>Horizontal and vertical partnership amongst African NGOs and other civil society actors in the field of adult education has zigzagged for too long. This rather imprudent crisscrossing needs a closer examination if African civil society is to make</span></i><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'> a mark on the post-2015 education agenda. In their articles for this virtual seminar, both Hinzen (2013) and Alan (2013), imply a greater participation of civil society individual actors and groups in shaping the global education and development agenda since the 1990s. The engagement of Adult Education-based CSOs in the post 2015 debates is more crucial today than 20 years back given evidence of increased subordination of the sub-sector from 2000s. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>The fronts of engagement are multiple and diverse. The well known and claimed versatility of CSOs is at a test. For instance, as Alan (2013) puts it, <i>we need a better voice for adult learning and education in the education community itself</i>. This better voice ought to have local, national, regional and global legitimacy and cohesion. As advocates, we all agree that collective voices are better heard. Global voices are no substitute to regional voices. Regional voices and no substitute to national voices, and indeed national voices do not replace local views. Where are the African civil society voices in the global education debates, particularly those related to adult learning and education (ALE)? If you are familiar with the African adult education terrain, you could be having an idea of several attempts to create and nurture civil society voices at national, regional and continental levels.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>The earlier attempts of the 1980s<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>The African Association for Literacy and Adult Education (AALAE) is arguably the most pronounced platform created in the 1980s to advance the promotion of literacy and education on the continent. There are pointers to significant achievements made by AALAE despite the huge ideological and management quagmire that befell it in the 1990s. With its collapse and eventual closure of its headquarters in Kenya, signs of a ‘successor’ network began to emerge. The </span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>Pan African Association for Literacy and Adult Education<span style='color:#004080'> </span></span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>(PALAE) was born to drive forward a similar agenda. Based in West Africa, PAALAE struggles but its muscle to bloom the storm is rather debatable. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>The attempts of the 1990s and 2000s (EFA)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>The EFA boom brought tremendous steam and hope. Indeed, there was a feeling of renewed interested in adult literacy / education. The hope for increased resource mobilization and financing for education motivated individual citizens and groups. New and old International initiatives such as the International Council for Adult Education and Global Campaign for Education, wantonly and unwittingly tickled many. Networks and Associations such as the Network Campaign on Education for All (ANCEFA) became visible at the continental level with national chapters in some countries. Apparently ANCEFA, by practice, has a strong inclination to formal schooling and the push to offset the effects of EFA boom.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>In the early 2000s, REFLECT practitioners and theorists formed a network called PAMOJA Africa REFLECT Network. Besides, the preoccupation to promote and nurture a hybrid of psycho-social and Freire radical approach to literacy learning, PAMOJA was a useful platform for linking literacy practitioners. Apparently, there seem to be PAMOJAs in East Africa, PAMOJA West Africa and the block for South Africa. The discussion about intra-PAMOJA linkages is outside the scope of this conversation though signals indicate some challenges to live to the original vision. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>The attempts during the CONFINTEA VI build-up<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>In preparation for the CONFINTEA VI Preparatory Meeting for the African Region, some four networks (</span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>ANCEFA, FEMNET, PAALAE and PAMOJA</span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>) established a loose super network called African Platform for Adult Education. This platform was instrumental in preparing a civil society input (</span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>CSO shadow report)</span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'> which was shared during CONFINTEA VI Regional Conference held in 2008 in Nairobi Kenya. Visibility of this Platform was only felt during the CONFINTEA VI pick of activities. Yet it seemed like a new springboard for bolstering African adult educators’ voice! <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><b><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'> What are the issues?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>The 2015 EFA Agenda was debated and concluded on African soil. The super education goal proposal ‘</span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>Lifelong Education and Quality learning for All’ was agreed in 2013 in Dakar through intensive discussions involving NGOs. Of course an audit to identify the contribution of African NGOs is not something I want to propose but it is worth thinking about. </span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>Something must be done by African adult educators. On a continent, where the pioneer President of ICAE was born, we must reflect on the previous attempts to generate collective voices to influence global debate. We need to identify lessons from our past to inform our imaginations and strategies to influence the post-2015 education and development debates. It is important that we address one of the key questions of the virtual seminar which I have tailored to fit my contribution. </span><i><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>How can African civil society at the local, national, regional level get better involved in these debates, and thus support the efforts by ICAE and others</span></i><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>?</span><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>Of course numerous local and national initiatives abound the continent. Thousands of CBOs and local NGOs engage in diverse advocacy initiatives to ensure that the right to education becomes a reality for millions of non-literate youths and adults in Africa. But these initiatives are rarely documented and disseminated. Actors do not inform each other of what works and does not. The time is now to once again profess and declare our willingness and preparedness to network within and beyond our borders. In his article, Hinzen (2013) says that it should be clear that opportunities and time for bottom-up debates are running out very quickly.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>I think our effective engagement in the Post 2015 education and development processes entails a real paradigm shift. This shift involves rethinking and vigorously tackling the tensions and interests that often undermine the growth and development of national and regional adult education networks. There is a greater need to share and nurture linkages to generate an African voice. Whether the African Platform or some form of loose connections amongst ICAE members or ILLALAs, something has to be done and done differently for that matter. If administering mega–networks or associations is problematic, could we explore possibilities of issue-based linkages between and among actors? Could we explore how interested individuals and organizations across the continent can for instance track and report on how AU and other regional inter-governmental bodies are engaging in the Post-2015 official negotiations?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>We ought to remain true to the universal conception of lifelong learning by broadening our adult education / literacy advocacy messages and targets to include decision makers and colleagues in ministries of education, primary and secondary schools, universities, ministries of labour. For over two decades, we are painfully paying for isolating ourselves and taking our actions to the periphery of mainstream EFA and MDG policy dialogues. We need to resolve to do certain things differently. For instance, we better declare never again to engage in international literacy day celebrations that target decision makers from only those Ministries responsible for adult literacy. The plight of semi and unskilled workers who as human being deserve descent work terms and conditions are often not included in our advocacy programs because we ordinarily think this is a preserve of trade unions. Intersectionality should be seen to be in force. Synergies between and among promoters of education and learning is all their facets is what we should help to build.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'>Thank you Prof Alan and Prof Hinzen, I have read your articles with keen interest. They have stimulated my imaginations. I wish to associate myself with many of the issues you raise. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-bottom:solid windowtext 1.0pt;padding:0cm 0cm 1.0pt 0cm'><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal;border:none;padding:0cm'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><b><i><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt'>(1) About the Virtual Seminar Participant (March 2014)<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt'>He is an educationist, research and development worker. He is the Executive Director of Education and Development Initiatives Uganda (EDI Uganda). He teaches research methods, community education methods and project planning and management at the Department of Adult Education of Kyambogo University. He is an ILLALA III Graduate.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:normal'><span lang=EN-US>P.O. Box 34589 Kampala, Uganda, Email: <a href="mailto:robert@adultslearnuganda.org">robert@adultslearnuganda.org</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormalCxSpMiddle align=center style='margin-bottom:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:center;line-height:normal'><b><span lang=EN-US>------------------------------------<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>