Belem (State of Para), Brazil

The Sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI) will provide an important platform for policy dialogue and advocacy on adult learning and non-formal education at global level, involving UNESCO Member States, United Nations agencies, multi-and bi-lateral cooperation agencies, organizations from civil society, the private sector and learners from all world regions. 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.

The schedule for the Regional Preparatory Conferences is:

• For Latin America and the Caribbean: “From Literacy to Lifelong Learning: Towards the Challenges of the 21st Century”, 10 – 13 September 2008 in Mexico City (Mexico).
  Organized in cooperation with the Mexican National Institute for Adult Education (INEA) on behalf of the Government of Mexico, the UNESCO Regional Bureau for in Latin America and the Caribbean in Santiago de Chile (OREALC), the UNESCO Office for United Nations Priorities (ED/UNP), and the UNESCO Office Mexico.
  
• For Asia/Pacific: “Building Equitable and Sustainable Societies in Asia and Pacific: the Challenge to Adult Learning”, 6 – 8 October 2008 in Seoul (Republic of Korea).
  Organized in cooperation with the Korean National Institute for Lifelong Education (NILE) on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Korea, the UNESCO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, and the UNESCO Office in Beijing.
  
• For Africa: “The Power of Youth and Adult Learning for African Development”, 5 – 7 November 2008 in Nairobi (Kenya).
  Organized in cooperation with the Department of Adult Education of the Ministry of Education on behalf of the Government of Kenya, the Regional Bureau of Education in Africa in Dakar, and the UNESCO Office in Nairobi.
  
• For Europe and North America and Israel: “Adult Learning for Equity and Inclusion in a Context of Mobility and Competition”, 3 – 5 December 2008 in Budapest (Hungary).
  Organized in cooperation with the Hungarian Institute for Culture on behalf of the Government of Hungary.
  
• For the Arab States: 5 – 7 January 2009 in Tunis (Tunisia).
  Organized in cooperation with the UNESCO Regional Office in Beirut.
  
  Apart from the Regional Synthesis Reports, a Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE) is under preparation, whose main results will feed into the CONFINTEA VI Working Document. Based on these reports as well as on the consultations and outcomes of the regional conferences, CONFINTEA VI will aim at the adoption of a “Framework for Action” with key strategies/recommendations and benchmarks for renewed action in and monitoring of adult learning and education.
  

For more information please visit: http://www.unesco.org/uil/en/focus/confinteabgrnd.htm