Alan Tuckett

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The VIII ^th ICAE World Assembly

For ten years now we have asserted, with other civil society organisations that “another world is possible” – one that is grounded in mutuality, human rights, and the opportunity for women and men to learn throughout their lives.

From CONFINTEA V in Hamburg onwards, ICAE’s members monitored the extent to which its recommendations had been implemented by the nations that signed up to them. We have been active in the work leading to the adoption of the Millennium Development Goals and the Education for All targets. Again, we monitored implementation on the ground. Our advocacy academy has built capacity among emerging leaders on every continent.

At Belém, in CONFINTEA VI we co-ordinated a critical civil society platform, challenging national states to recognise the importance learning plays in the lives of young people and adults alike, and its key role in supporting the ambitions enshrined in the EFA and MDG goals.

Now at the 8^th World Assembly of the ICAE we need to move beyond the assertion that “another world is possible”, to ask how we can create a world worth living in for young people and adults throughout the world.

We have chosen 4 themes through which to explore the Council’s agenda for the next 3 years.

First we have, of course, to explore the opportunities and challenges presented by the agenda of CONFINTEA VI, the revised MDGs, and by the last years of the period covered by the EFA targets. A key thematic – raised at CONFINTEA VI and adopted in the agenda for action-concerns migration and the learning needs and rights of individuals and communities displaced by political oppression or economic necessity.

Second, we will explore the possibilities presented for learning at and through work – paid and unpaid, co-operative and employed.

Third, we will address the learning dimensions of environmental change, global warming, and the differential impact on different societies.

Fourth, we are taking advantage of meeting in Malmo, Sweden to look at lessons and experiences arising from the Nordic tradition of popular enlightenment.

Taking the 4 themes we will then weave a programme of action to recommend to the ICAE General Assembly.

There has never been a more important time for popular and adult educators to work together to share experience and to frame thinking on what a world worth living in – for everyone – would look like, and what role learning can play. Join us!