ICAE

The 7th World Assembly of the ICAE, "Adults' Right to Learn: Convergence, Solidarity and Action ", was held in Nairobi in January 2007. We published some oft he background documents in the last issue of Adult Education and Development. One of the working groups was concerned with the organisation and financing of adult education. The text that follows sets out who were the members oft his commission, and what suggestions were put forward. In this section we publish some of the documents written by members of the commission for the occasion.

ICAE Commission on Adult Education, Organisation and Financing

Around forty participants took part in the meeting of the Commission during the ICAE World Assembly in Nairobi.

Colleagues from different geographical, thematic and gender back-grounds were represented in the Commission:

• Mr. Robert Jjuuko, Uganda, Africa
• Ms. Joko Arai, Japan, Asia
• Mr. Edicio dela Torre, Philippines, Asia
• Ms. Alejandra Scampini, Uruguay, Latin America
• Mr. Roberto Bassio, Uruguay, Latin America
• Ms. Agneta Lind, Sweden, Europe
• Mr. János Tóth, Hungary, Europe

The Rapporteur was Ms. Portia Mbude from South Africa. Mr. Heribert Hinzen, Germany, Europe, acted as Convenor.

The deliberations in the Commission resulted in the following proposals:

1. Governments need to support policy and legislation for adult education. There is a need too to redefine the fields of adult learning, lifelong learning, adult education, and adult literacy. It is crucial to describe what is meant by adult education on a global level.
2. The reality of adult education is that this is not a government priority. Aid money cannot be relied on to pay teachers' salaries. There is therefore a need to work together to influence governments on the importance of financing adult education. Furthermore there is a need to explore sources of funding available and to challenge debt sustainability to prioritize social responsibilities. Government and international donors must pay rigorous attention to this. There is a drastic need to interact with finance ministries to lobby for access to funding for adult education and learning.
3. Capacity building and training programs are crucial to develop support for both full time and part time adult educators.
4. To attain the MDGs it is imperative to focus on poverty eradication and to incorporate the women's rights agenda in adult education.
5. Government, the private sector and civil society have to work together. There is a strong argument for making a commitment to cross-cutting, interdepartmental adult education issues such as budget and governance.