Paris, September 1 {No.2000-76} - UNESCO and the World Bank are organising a global dialogue on Building Learning Societies: Knowledge, Information and Human Development, September 6 to 8, as part of EXPO2000 in Hanover (Germany). The event will conclude, on International Literacy Day (September 8), with the launch of International Adult Learners' Week.

Over three days, the Global Dialogue on Building Learning Societies will bring together participants from a wide range of professional and social backgrounds to examine the key challenge of the new millennium: how to utilise the tools of the communication revolution to combat the growing marginalisation of large segments of the world's population in the face of the explosion of knowledge and information. The dialogue will lead to the proposal of concrete action to promote a global culture of learning.

The event will include five workshop sessions, entitled Workshop 21, two public dialogues and will close with two plenary sessions. The first will present the conclusions and recommendations of Workshop 21 and of the public dialogues. The second, under the title Platform for the Future, will draw on the participation of the public to define the elements of a new paradigm for the emerging world society. It will also feature the launch of the first International Adult Learners' Week.

The following subjects will be addressed during the five sessions of Workshop 21: Multiple Intelligences: Differentiated Ways of Learning, Knowing and Reading the World; The Trouble with Knowledge: Turning Education Around, the Role and Place of Culture and Values, Traditional and 'new' knowledge and wisdom; Snapshots of Cyber-Democracy: Call for Cyber-Citizenship; Understanding Civic Responsibility: Learning for Creative Citizenship - a New Paradigm for the Emerging World Society; Building Learning Societies. The Challenge of Sustainability.

The first of the public dialogues, Thursday September 7, 2 p.m. to 3.30 p.m., will be the subject of a radio programme. It will tackle the subject of "Knowledge and Wisdom - Beyond Speed, Bytes and Connection". It will be moderated by British historian Theodore Zeldin, with the participation of Noble Prize winning author Toni Morrison, musician Brian Eno, and film-maker Victor Masaysva. The second dialogue, "Learning Together for the Future", will take place on the same day, from 5.15 p.m. to 6.45 p.m. It will link schools from Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Germany and Spain through a videoconference and will feature the projection of two short films entitled "Learning for Sustainability".

On the afternoon of Friday September 8 (3 p.m. to 5 p.m.), a plenary session, Platform for the Future, will close the event bringing together Edelgard Bulmahn, Germany's Federal Minister for Education and Research, and Seydou Sanan Education Minister of Burkina Faso. During the plenary, messages by UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura, former South African President Nelson Mandela and United Kingdom Education Secretary David Blunkett will be broadcast for the launch of International Adult Learners' Week.

The celebration of International Adult Learners' Week was among the recommendations made by the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education (Hamburg, 1977). At the initiative of some forty countries, including Egypt, Jamaica, South Africa, and the United Kingdom, it was also the subject of a Resolution adopted by the 30th session of UNESCO's General Conference.

UNESCO's Member States felt that International Literacy Day (September 8) is not sufficient and that a week would be more appropriate to tackle the full range of subjects concerning adult education, notably those concerning on the job and skills training, civics education, health and environment education. The Week aims to celebrate learning and learners through all types of event that can highlight the pride of learning and the challenges of learning. While the celebration will be launched in Hanover, States will determine dates and activities independently.