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Introduction by Paul
Bélanger
ICAE President
All ICAE members, all members of our networks and networks with whom we are
in solidarity, are invited to participate in the coming ICAE virtual seminar
that opens today, April 21st.
This seminar comes at a critical moment, precisely twelve months before
CONFINTEA VI and before the civil society summit that ICAE will convene
immediately before the UNESCO Conference.
The objective of this seminar is simple but vital. It is to explore and
develop a consensus on the issues that need to be addressed at CONFINTEA. We
need to look back at the last twelve years and discuss what needs to be
changed in order for women and men to be able to exercise concretely their
right to learn.
We need not only to look at the way Member States have succeeded or not to
implement the commitments at CONFINTEA V, but also to examine the way we,
ourselves, have or not implemented the commitments we have also made, as
NGOs, at this world summit in 1997.
The discussion will be focused successively along four main themes:
- Literacy and basic education for all adults, knowing through UNESCO report
and through our own assessments, that EFA has often been reduced, during
this period, to initial education and that the MDG could not be implemented
without the Education For Adults.
- Migration, discrimination and the learning rights of migrants around the
world to protect and enjoy their other rights,
- The growing inequality also at work which, in fact, constitutes the main
mechanism to redistribute wealth in society. Hence, the importance of the
right to learn in order to produce more efficiently and more ecologically
the goods and services that humanity needs, but also in order to exercise
and protect our right to work in the growing economic incertitude.
- Policies and legislations on adult learning to regulate a more balanced
provision of learning opportunities, of better professional quality and of
social significance for the learners, the voice of whom needs to be heard
more strongly. The financing issue also which remains, at the end of the day,
the best indicator of commitments by the different actors.
We hope that this space opened for dialogue among ourselves will help to
consolidate the adult learning movements animated, among other actors, by
ICAE and its networks. Our objective is to be able, at all levels, to make a
difference in the year to come for women and men in our various societies.
However, this will only be possible if our proposals are grounded in reality
and be given the legitimacy created by the diversity and importance of
people participation in this crucial exercise.
The right to participate reflexively and creatively is a fundamental right
but it is has also become a crucial instrument for the construction of the
future, if not for the survival of humanity.
We are deeply worried. Things have moved so slowly since 1997. What is most
needed is action, concrete changes, global and local, to make a real
difference locally and globally.
We look forwards to your contribution.
Paul
President of ICAE
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