UIL - Lifelong Learning

English Français Contact

Home »Thematic Areas »Lifelong Learning

Focus

Education for All

CONFINTEA

Literacy Initiative
for Empowerment

UN Literacy
Decade

   UN Decade of
      Education for
      Sustainable
      Development

   Millennium
      Development
      Goals

Contact | Impressum

South-South Cooperation on ESD and Lifelong Learning

UIL has initiated the South-South dialogue on Lifelong Learning as a key component in the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) debate. The objective of the forum is to promote partnerships and cooperation amongst countries in Asia and the Sub-Sahara. These countries face acute challenges in sustainability and economic and social development. Education of all forms, especially learning that occurs outside of formal settings, will be critical to the resolution of these challenges. Understanding the place of non-formal and informal education is particularly important in countries where access to formal education is limited and where the majority of learning takes place in non-formal, home, work and life settings. UIL is well positioned to support Member States to develop innovative and alternative arrangements for holistic, sustainable development in a lifelong learning context. The policy forum will assist participating countries to refine their understandings of lifelong learning and sustainable development in order to alleviate poverty and improve social, economic and educational outcomes for disadvantaged groups.

• South-South Policy Forum on Lifelong Learning as the Key to Education for Sustainable Development

UIL, in partnership with the Ministry of National Education Indonesia, Indonesian NATCOM, and the UNESCO Office, Jakarta, initiated the South-South Policy Forum on Lifelong Learning as the Key to Education for Sustainable Development. The meeting held in Jakarta in April 2008 provided an opportunity to share current practices and challenges and to develop a strategy to guide Member States in the future implementation of ESD in the Lifelong Learning context.

The four themes that guided the Policy Forum were:
          • Conceptual clarification of lifelong learning and              education for sustainable development;
          • Essential competencies for economic, social, political,              environmental and cultural sustainability;
          • Learning strategies conducive to sustainable              development; and
          • Institutional architecture of lifelong learning for              sustainable development.

A key outcome of the forum was the Jakarta Strategy Paper on Lifelong Learning as the Key to Education for Sustainable Development . This document will inform country policy and practice as Member States seek to integrate lifelong learning, particularly non-formal and informal learning, into education policies that will support sustainable social and economic development.

The forum also established a permanent network of South-South Policy Forum participants to implement the recommendations coming from the strategy. The next meeting of the South-South Policy Forum will discuss lifelong learning in the context of sustainable livelihoods and is to be held in Lusaka, Zambia in July 2008. This meeting is being co-organised by:

Commonwealth of Learning (COL), UNESCO Institute off Lifelong Learning (UIL), Commonwealth Association of Polytechnics in Africa(CAPAH),

A monograph, SHAPING SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: LEARNING FOR LIFE IN THE 21ST CENTURY documents the outputs of the South-South Policy Forum on Lifelong Learning as the Key to Education for Sustainable Development, Jakarta 2008. This publication is currently under preparation and will be released in 2008.

The South-South Policy Forum documents available are:

Concept paper for the South-South Policy Forum on Lifelong Learning as the Key to Education for Sustainable Development ,

Report on the South-South Forum from UNESCO Jakarta Office,

Jakarta Strategy for Furthering Lifelong Learning's Contribution to Sustainable Development

Contact: Madhu Singh