UIL, being UNESCO’s specialized institute in adult learning and non-formal education, has embarked on the preparatory process leading to the conference in 2009. UNESCO has actually organized international meetings within the CONFINTEA series every 12 – 13 years since the late 1940s (in Denmark in 1949, Canada 1960, Japan 1972 and France 1985). The fifth CONFINTEA conference (CONFINTEA V) in Hamburg, Germany, in 1997 marked a turning point in the global recognition of and commitment to adult learning and non-formal education.

CONFINTEA V called attention to adult learning and non-formal education being indispensable elements of lifelong learning. Adopting two landmark documents at the end of the global conference, the delegates underscored that adult and lifelong learning are key tools to address the global challenges of the 21st century in relation to democracy, peace and human rights, respect for diversity and conflict resolution, economic and ecological sustainability and workforce development.

This holistic understanding of adult learning and non-formal education established by CONFINTEA V still constitutes the ground upon which CONFINTEA VI will build. CONFINTEA VI will strengthen the recognition of adult learning and non-formal education within the perspective of life-wide and lifelong learning. The CONFINTEA VI agenda will be comprehensive and inclusive of the diversity and range of existing adult and non-formal learning forms, modes, places and themes. Yet, the overarching goal of CONFINTEA VI will be the articulation of adult learning and non-formal education with other international education and development agendas (EFA, UNLD, LIFE, MDGs) and the integration of adult learning and non-formal education within national sector-wide strategies. Of course, CONFINTEA VI will also assess how the commitments made in 1997 have been implemented and – this being its most important ambition – will produce the tools (e.g. benchmarks) to ensure that previous and current commitments on adult learning and non-formal education are implemented, in order to move from rhetoric to action.

UIL is coordinating the preparatory process leading to CONFINTEA VI, in close cooperation with UNESCO Headquarters, UNESCO Regional Bureaus and the Ministry of Education in the CONFINTEA VI Host Country, Brazil. UIL is supported by the CONFINTEA VI Consultative Group, an advisory group of experts in non-formal education which is accompanying the process and guiding the conceptual preparation of the conference. As has been the previously established procedure, the preparatory process will include national reports and regional review meetings, as well as reviews and consultations on specific themes. Central to the process will be the development of internationally applicable and adaptable benchmarks in adult learning and non-formal education, which will be steered by a small international core group under the coordination of UIL. Preparing draft benchmarks to as instruments to measure progress, advocate and create commitment in adult education and learning will be a central activity within the preparatory process and provide a key input to the CONFINTEA VI conference, as well as, after their adoption as part of the concluding conference document, one of the crucial outputs of CONFINTEA VI.