The Marrakech Framework for Action sets out key areas for action required to achieve this vision over the next decade. UNESCO Member States will work to realize a right to lifelong learning, enhancing governance and quality of adult learning and education, backed by increased investment. They committed to placing inclusion at the heart of these endeavours to ensure that those most often left behind benefit from lifelong learning.

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The main challenge for adult learning and education across the globe is to reach those who need it most. This is the key message of UNESCO’s Fifth Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE 5).

UNESCO’s report...

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In preparation of the Seventh International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VII), in Marrakech, Morocco, in June 2022, a series of regional conferences took place between February and September 2021. This document provides a synthesis of the outcomes of these events. The regional outcome documents identified current concerns, priorities and recommendations for CONFINTEA VII. This synthesis of the regional outcome documents will contribute to the Marrakech Framework for Action (MFA), the main outcome document of CONFINTEA VII, and guide all relevant ALE stakeholders and UNESCO...

In preparation of the seventh International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VII), the Slovenian Ministry for Education, Science and Sport and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) organized a dual online conference entitled ‘Adult learning and education – The resilient response to future challenges’.

The Europe and North American region is a diverse one, geographically, economically, politically, socially, ethnically, linguistically and culturally. Countries in the region do, however, have one demographic characteristic in common: an ageing population. Young...

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is a region comprising 46 countries, dependent territories and overseas departments. It is characterized by a unique combination of cultures, languages and ethnicities. The states of the region officially recognize 826 indigenous peoples with 44.8 million members and 125 million individuals of African descent. This diversity, however, is accompanied by a further regional characteristic: structural inequality.

In 2019, one year prior to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, a report on the economic outlook for LAC published by the Organisation...

Given that the promise to ‘leave no one behind’ (LNOB) is central to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its goals (UNSDG, 2022), it is crucial to promote lifelong learning in sub-Saharan Africa, with a particular focus on young people and adults, and on marginalized and/or vulnerable groups. Illiteracy, low levels of education and a lack of lifelong learning opportunities across the region are strongly linked to low productivity, low incomes and poor health, particularly in combination with latent conflicts and insecurity linked to terror, migration and other human and...

The region is facing increasing challenges in the field of literacy and adult education due to the political instability that affects some of the countries, resulting in waves of migration. International and regional organizations are providing continuous support to countries of the region to help them build responsive policies and systems of good governance in the field of education in general, and in the fields of adult learning and education as well as lifelong learning in particular.

In preparation for the Seventh International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VII),...

The Regional CONFINTEA VII Conference for Asia and the Pacific was held virtually on 22 September 2021. 237 participants from countries across the region attended, including ministry of education officials, NGOs, national and regional education representatives, academia, the private sector, and adult learning and education/lifelong learning stakeholders. This outcome document was developed based on the discussions held and contributions made during the conference.

Asia and the Pacific is home to one third of the world’s population, including more than 60 per cent of the world’s...

Educators are key to quality adult learning and education. Yet, a lack of professional adult educators still hinders progress towards the provision of lifelong learning opportunities in many countries around the world.

Curriculum globALE supports the professionalization of adult educators. By providing cross-curricular approaches, it is a unique reference framework for the training of adult educators which can easily be contextualized to national and regional environments.

By supporting adult educators around the world, Curriculum globALE improves not only the standard of...