Hamburg (Germany), July 18 - "At the beginning of the conference, the focus was institutions. At the end of the conference, the focus is people," summed up Paul Bélanger, Secretary-General of the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA), about the overall direction of the five-day event which ended today with the adoption of a Declaration and Agenda for the Future.

"What was at first a conference on adult education," he said, "became more a conference about active, creative adults. And for people to become active and competent, they need lifelong resources."

''The second most significant aspect of this conference," Mr Bé1anger continued, "is that for the first time in the history of the United Nations, the non-governmental institutions - the civil society - and the governments joined together, and not only to agree on a declaration, but to agree on a commitment to act, at the local, national and international level."

The fact that the non-governmental organizations had not voted did not limit their contribution to the final result, stresses Mr Bélanger. "What the governments are voting is a plan of action which has been elaborated with the participation of all. It is a plan of action which represents a consensus of all the actors."

"Of course the stamp is a government stamp," concluded Mr Bélanger, "but the letter was written by all."

Paul Bé1anger is the director of UNESCO's Hamburg-based Institute for Education (UIE), a research, training, information, documentation and publishing centre which focuses mainly on adult and continuing education, literacy and non-formal basic education in the perspective of lifelong learning. UIE, in collaboration with international partners and at the request of UNESCO's General Conference, is playing a leading role in the organisation and follow-up of CONFINTEA.

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