Gearing up for the CONFINTEA VI Mid-Term Review: A new Memorandum of Understanding

From 25 to 27 October 2017, the Korean cities of Suwon and Osan will host a landmark global event on adult learning and education, the Mid-Term Review of the Sixth International Conference on Adult Learning and Education (CONFINTEA VI).

On 24 March 2017, the mayor of Suwon city, Taeyoung Yeom, and the mayor of Osan city, Sangwook Kwak, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), on organizing the Mid-Term Review of CONFINTEA VI. The mayors were joined by their city council chairs, Jinkwan Kim (Suwon) and Junghwan Son (Osan), while UIL was represented by its director, Arne Carlsen. Kwangho Kim, the Secretary-General of the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, was also present at the signing, in which all parties agreed to cooperate on the event’s arrangements ‘on the basis of mutual respect and confidence’.

The signing of the MoU was part of a preparatory meeting for the organizing entities of this global event. There were also roundtable discussions on the development of lifelong learning in Suwon, which were hosted by its mayor. UIL experts, Werner Mauch and Sung Lee, also attended the discussions and gained useful insights on the landscape of lifelong learning in Suwon city. They also visited some of Suwon city’s 613 lifelong learning facilities.