Interagency Strategic Group on Lifelong Learning (Hamburg, 25-26 April 2002)

This meeting brought together a group of experts and policy makers from countries, agencies and academia to share views on the role of lifelong learning in developed countries and its values for developing countries. However, the emphasis was on the relevance of lifelong learning to educational and development challenges in developing countries and to identify strategic steps that could help transform current policies.  Another objective of the meeting was to identify policy measures/strategies to achieve the goals set by the Dakar Framework of Action  and the Hamburg Declaration (CONFINTEA V) in order to realise basic education for all as a foundation for lifelong learning.

In reviewing a wide range of development in lifelong learning –at local, country, regional and international levels, participants were impressed at the clear signs of  the awareness of the possibilities of learning that is lifelong and life-wide. Two directions were showed after the presentation of country and agencies’ experiences:

  • The significance of clearly articulated principles, goals and strategies that should be promoted on a universal, global level, for the entire international community in all its complexity.
  • The central need for such principles, goals and strategies to be redefined in light of cultural, political, linguistic, economic and technological diversity.
These two directions, show a tension when advocates of lifelong learning seek to gain the attention of policy-makers at the highest level.  
Although participants were keen to focus on strategic, policy and operational imperatives, there was also a clear consensus on the need for more effort to be made to clarify concepts of lifelong learning.
The holistic potential of lifelong learning was stressed, so as to maximise the potential of human learning experience and transform areas of individual and social need (e.g. health, economic productivity and growth etc.) in ways beyond the capacity of the conventional education sub-sectors.
Many participants identified a clear need beyond “basic education for all”. Global strategies need to avoid a “one size fits all” way of thinking, to acknowledge a wide range of priorities, political choices, and varied levels of national affluence and capacity.
A sense of urgency was expressed to move quickly beyond conceptual clarification in order to put principles into practice as quickly as possible, but in globally diverse ways. Lifelong learning is for all learners, whether in formal education or not and one opportunity which arises from a global commitment to lifelong learning principles is the transformation of traditional schooling. Experiences showed how traditional schooling has often acted as an obstacle to lifelong and life-wide learning.
It was stressed that no policy framework of lifelong learning is acceptable if it failed the test of promoting economic and social equity.
The participants (countries and agencies) agreed to co-operate  in order to develop the above mentioned points. It was also agreed to organise a follow-up of this meeting,  and also to communicate the different observations and feature strategies to other international meetings coming up in the future.

 List of Particaipants

Final Report