On 24th January 2022, the 4th UN International Day of Education, UNESCO has stated that this day will be “a platform to showcase the most important transformations that have to be nurtured to realize everyone’s fundamental right to education and build a more sustainable, inclusive and peaceful future.”
We could not have picked a more appropriate day to invite our members and partners to this once in a 12-year opportunity to contribute to shaping this transformation of adult learning and education (ALE).
The moment has come: the Seventh International Conference on Adult Education, CONFINTEA VII will be held in mid-June 2022 in Morocco.
The Conference under the title: Adult learning and education within the new social contract: A key to sustainable development will take stock of the progress made by Member States since CONFINTEA VI (Brazil, 2009), examine effective adult learning and education (ALE) policies within a lifelong learning perspective and within the framework of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Conference participants will develop and agree on a new framework for action on adult learning and education that will replace the Belém Framework for Action (BFA), adopted at CONFINTEA VI in 2009. Stay updated on the UIL website: https://uil.unesco.org/adult-education/confintea/seventh-international-conference-adult-education-confintea-vii.
Since the pandemic continues to make organising global events challenging, the conference is planned to be conducted in a hybrid format, which would allow for both in-person and online participation, according to the current information available. The final details are still not decided, we wait for further information and will update you asap.
Last year, UNESCO/UIL completed a series of sub-regional consultations that many of you actively participated in. We expect that the regional outcome documents will be published soon and disseminated widely to the interested partners through regular channels. They will be available in English and French, also in Arabic for the Arab States and Spanish for Latin America and the Caribbean. These regional outcome documents will inform the new Framework for Action.
UNESCO/UIL has also announced that the first draft of the new Framework for Action will be available soon and online consultations will be open most probably in February.
As the main civil society partner in the CONFINTEA process and event, ICAE and our members will actively take part in the CONFINTEA VII process. ICAE is one of the three civil society representatives in the UNESCO/UIL Consultative Committee, contributing with other social partners, to designing the preparatory process and to the planned dialogue in the lead up to the conference. Through our participation, we are making sure that civil society partners will meaningfully contribute to developing the new FfA that will guide ALE in the next 12 years.
- As we did in Belem and in Suwon, ICAE will organise a Civil Society Forum on the 14th of June. There has also been a proposal to conduct a Youth Forum and also a Private Sector before the main CONFINTEA VII. The exact format and details will be decided later, depending on the pandemic situation and on the final format of the main conference. We invite members to book these dates in their calendar.
- Further on, ICAE will organise, together with our regional members, one civil society preparatory event per region, to be held on line. We look forward to your active contribution in organising these events. We also are aware that some of our members are organising their own CONFINTEA VII events. Please do not hesitate to inform us so we can share your events with the other members. You will be informed and invited on time. Please be alert!
- We will also inform you about the beginning of the online consultation process regarding the new Framework for Action (most probably in February), about the possible lines of action and about ICAE‘s position.
Read up more and find all document also on our CONFINTEA VII Repository, which we have started together with DVV International: https://www.dvv-international.de/en/materials/global-processes-and-policy-documents/confintea
We will share with you some more information as soon as we receive them. In the meantime – stay attentive, prepare to engage and mobilise, and stay safe!
