For sixteen years adult learners' weeks, literacy celebrations and lifelong learning festivals have been organized at local, national and/or regional levels worldwide to mobilize for adult learning and non-formal education within the perspective of lifelong learning. Addressing policy makers, providers, educators and adult learners alike, the campaigns have created visibility and support for adult and lifelong learning. The activities have also been conducive to building cooperation, networks and synergies, and have provided arenas for adult learners to articulate their aspirations and to increasingly emerge as partners in policy dialogue.

The International Adult Learners Week network came into being in the year 2000 as a result of the Fifth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA V), by means of a UNESCO resolution to "enrich International Literacy Day and strengthen its links to the larger adult learning movement to which it contributes". To date, four international advocacy events have been hosted by partners in UNESCO Member States (in Belgium in 2001, Brazil 2002, South Africa 2004, and Norway 2005). Between the end of 2003 and the end of 2006, the European Commission supported a Regional European sub-network of learning festivals in the framework of their Socrates/Grundtvig programme.

This year's International Adult Learners' Week will take place in the UK, co-hosted by UIL and NIACE, the organisation which invented it and has developed and significantly supported fellow organisers in other countries to spread the movement. As we are approaching the next International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI in 2009), the 2007 International Adult Learners' Week will represent a stepping stone for CONFINTEA VI, with the overall goal of reviewing the past and projecting the future of the global advocacy network. The event will likewise serve to create advocacy for CONFINTEA VI.

Approximately 120 adult education experts from governments and NGOs representing 25 countries will join the event, including adult learners who will take an active part in the discussions both during the workshops and as plenary speakers. The event will be honoured by the presence of the UK Minister of State for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education, Mr Bill Rammel, and the Deputy Minister of Education of South Africa, Mr Enver Surty.

Contact:
Bettina Bochynek (b.bochynek@unesco.org)