Introduction

A World Worth Living In

On June 15 and 16 in Malmö in Sweden, the eighth World Assembly of the International Council for Adult Education and Development (ICAE) took place under the motto A world worth living in. Adult learning and education: a key for transformation. The meeting was jointly organised by the General Assembly of the European Association for Education of Adults (EAEA). Several Swedish Adult Education organisations (Swedish Adult Education Association – SAEA, RIO, The Swedish National Council of Adult Education – FBR). The Swedish community and regional association (Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions – SKL) were the hosts for 700 participants from 82 countries.

The results of the deliberations of the adult educators in numerous seminars and working groups on the following topics

• Lifelong Learning for sustainability in a climate changing world
• Follow up to the MDGs, the EFA Goals and the CONFINTEA agenda
• No right to decent work without decent learning and
• The Nordic folkbildning and worldwide challenges

was summarised by Camilla Croso in her report. Camilla is Brazilian. She coordinates the Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (Campaña Latinoamericana por el Derecho a la Educación – CLADE).

In preparation for the discussions of the World Assembly, ICAE set up a webbased so-called “virtual seminar” on the topics of the meeting. Especially the first topic, Lifelong Learning for sustainability in a climate changing world, continues the focus on Environmental Education from the previous edition of our magazine.

The pioneering environmental conference from Rio is already 20 years in the past, and the international political system, as has been shown by the follow-up conferences, is powerless in the implementation of decisions and does not question the basic model, which relies on private ownership and growth. The “Green Economy”, which is now presented as a market solution for environmental problems, must be viewed with skepticism. But based on it, real alternatives are being tested.

Fatima Mello is director of the Brazilian non-governmental organisation FASE – Federação de Órgãos para Assistência Social e Educacional (Federation of organisations for social welfare and education).

Roberto Bissio from Uruguay is the coordinator of the Social Watch network. He argues that now, a year before the UN summit on sustainable development, which will once again be held in Rio, an urgent appeal needs to be made to the governments of the world to change their ways of thinking, because the future depends on their decisions. This appeal, entitled Urgent Appeal to Change the Mindset was formulated by the Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectives.