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GEO/ICAE
http://www.iiz-dvv.de/englisch/default.htm
Online Registration:
http://www.migrationandintegration.de/
The Fourth Meeting of UNESCO’s Collective Consultation of NGOs on Education for All (CCNGO/EFA) will be held in Dakar, Senegal, from 3 to 5 September 2007. The CCNGO/EFA links UNESCO with hundreds of NGOs, networks and coalitions around the world. It is a key mechanism to promote civil society participation in achieving the EFA goals.
The
meeting aims to assess and promote the involvement of NGOs in education
policy dialogue and EFA processes at national, regional and international
level, and review civil society contributions towards the six EFA goals. It
will also address the capacity and expertise of civil society for EFA
partnerships, programmes and advocacy as well as UNESCO – NGO cooperation
for EFA. Contact: s.detzel@unesco.org DATE AND VENUE The Fourth Meeting of the Collective Consultation of NGOs on Education for All will be held from September 3rd to 5th, 2007 at Novotel hotel in Dakar. Hôtel Novotel Avenue Abdoulaye Fadiga BP 20 73 Tel. +221 ... ; Fax 849 61 97 Dakar
Related links
The Fourth Meeting of the
Collective Consultation of NGOs on Education for All (CCNGO/EFA)
Civil society pushes the way
forward Non-governmental organizations and foundations
http://www.niace.org.uk/news/current.htm#International 4.- Julius Nyerere Annual Lecture on Lifelong Learning. UWC.
Julius Nyerere Annual Lecture on Lifelong Learning. UWC. 29th August, 2007.
“Building a convivial society: Insights from Nyerere and Freire”[1]
Introduction.
First of all I would like to say how honoured and surprised I was to be invited by Rector and Vice chancellor, Professor Brian O’Connell,( and Shirley Walters) to be the main speaker at his annual event on Life-Long Learning in honour of President Julius Nyerere. I have been an admirer of Nyerere for nearly 50 years and he certainly contributed a great deal to my own Life-long-learning, so it is a privilege for me to have this opportunity of honouring him, and contributing something towards the recognition of this great man. I was shocked when I told a colleague who is fairly well-informed on many things, that I was giving this lecture, and she said, “Who is Nyerere?” That can’t go on, and I am very glad to see all of you here.
The topic is actually LLL and Shirley and Brian asked me to share something of my own process of Lifelong Learning. When I thought about the topic I was tickled to realize that I have at least one advantage over most of you in this room. I have had a much longer life than anyone else I see here, and therefore have had a lot more opportunity than most of you to become an expert in LLL. I think there is a very strong correlation between one’s commitment to lifelong learning and the quality of one’s life. As soon as one stops learning one’s life begins to shrivel.
I think those who are really committed to LLL, need two qualities. One is a strong sense of curiosity, and the other is wonder. It is a great gift to have parents who encourage one’s sense of curiosity. My father certainly did this for me and my brother and sister. I can remember sitting on the arm of his chair while he told us stories, especially the Just So Stories, ‘How the Leopard got his Spots”, and “The Elephant’s Child, who was filled with insatiable curiosity”, and that was how he got that useful long trunk of his. I can remember my father reciting with great enthusiasm from Kipling: in which he talks of questions as his most important assistants “They taught me all I knew. Their names are How? and What? and Where? and Why? and When? and Who? I send them over land and sea, I send them East and West But after they have worked for meI give them all a rest”.
The encouragement to use these “six questions” to ask about things we don’t understand, to search for answers to problems, to discover how things work, and why things are the way they are is essential to launch a child on LLL, even though the questions of children may often drive adults dotty.
Nyerere was a wonderful example of LLL and he never stopped asking those questions. He never stopped trying to understand the causes of the problems of his people, or stopped searching for effective solutions.
I think that Nyerere was one of the most creative development thinkers and one of the great statesmen of the 20th Century and of Africa. He was in a unique position because much sooner than most other people he recognized that the policies of the dominant development organizations were not only failing to deal with the problems, but were in fact making them worse, contributing to the impoverishment of the countries of the South. He was a very clear thinker and developed an increasingly sharp analysis. All his life he was in a constant search to find effective alternative solutions. He never stopped thinking, and he never stopped learning.
Unlike most of the development thinkers, who could only try out their ideas from academic settings or the offices of organizations, either locals or global, he had the authority, as president of Tanzania, to put his ideas into practice immediately in a whole country. The disadvantage of this was that it became glaringly obvious if any of his ideas were not working, whereas for most people the ideas that are not effective remain hidden in the pages of books and are soon forgotten. In hindsight we can see that Nyerere made some mistakes, but he was always open to evaluate his efforts, admit it when they were not working, and try something new, continuing to apply his mind to old and new problems.
Most of all he was a great and generous human being who had the wellbeing of his people deeply at heart. His concern started with the people of Tanzania, but it was constantly growing and soon stretched way beyond his own country. He tried hard to develop regional unity in East Africa, even going to war at great cost to his own country to help Ugandans get rid of Idi Amin. He committed himself unreservedly to the struggle to get rid of apartheid in South Africa, and gave strong support to the ANC in exile and to all the young exiles who flooded into Tanzania after 1976. This means that there is and should always be a very deep bond between South Africans and Tanzanians. We owe him a lot. Nyerere helped to develop the Southern African Co-ordinating Committee, which later became SADC, and as chairman of the South Commission he helped the countries of the South to challenge the global economic structures, which made the industrialized countries get richer and richer at the expense those of the South.
Since 1954 I have belonged to an international women’s movement committed to working for justice and peace, called the Grail. As you probably know in many different legends the Grail cup is the symbol of the ultimate happiness, peace and fulfillment - a fulfillment which is always elusive but so close to our hearts that it is worthwhile to spend one’s whole life in the search for it. In order to deepen our understanding of different countries the Grail organized long term exchange programs for people who were willing to spend three or four years serving in a different country. I was lucky enough to be sent by the Grail to teach in Uganda for four years in my 20’s. This had a lasting effect on my life.
I was based in a small town called Kalisizo just 100 km north of the border of Tanzania. We were building up from scratch a girls’ boarding school, only the fourth secondary school for girls in the country. Kalisizo was referred to as a center of trade and education. We were the education and the trade consisted of a dozen or so small Indian shops on either side of the main, dirt road. We were trying our best to make the education we offered relevant to the needs of the country and to the kind of life these girls would be leading later in their villages, so there was a strong emphasis on agriculture. We aimed at as much self reliance as possible. We grew all our own food, in that area this meant big banana plantations for the staple food, matoke, (steamed green bananas) sweet potatoes, cassava for times of famine, groundnuts, onions and tomatoes for sauces, and lots of pawpaws and pineapples. The land was so fertile that if one put posts in the ground for washlines, in no time at all they started to bear leaves. The girls worked each day in the fields and the older ones were actively involved in the local community. We built in a lot of leadership training and they helped us with women’s and girls clubs in the villages.
During those years in the late 50’s and early 60’s, we made frequent trips to Tanzania. One of my colleagues, had been a fellow student with Nyerere, Julius, as everyone called him, when he was studying for his master’s degree at Edinburgh University. So as all the East African countries, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania were moving towards Independence- Uhuru- we took a great interest in his career. These were the years in which he was rapidly becoming more and more central in the struggle of Tanganyika for independence. By 1957 he was drawing crowds of 30,000 wherever he went in the country, and in December 1961 he became Prime Minister of the first government of independent Tanganyika. I first saw him at the celebration of Internal Self-government in May 1961 in the town of Mwanza on the shores of Lake Victoria. The excitement was enormous, unforgettable. But a month later after independence, in January 1962 Nyerere resigned as prime minister. Along with everyone else I was flabbergasted. Here was the undisputed leader of the country resigning right after independence. What on earth was happening? But Nyerere had his reasons. He did not resign as president of the party, TANU. He had decided that if the country was to become a true democracy with responsible well-informed voters, there must be far more political preparation of the people as a whole. So he spent the next year traveling all over the country involved in an intensive programme of political and economic adult education. Then, a year later, when Tanganyika became a republic, he became the first president of the country. The name Tanzania was only adopted after the unification of Tanganyika and Zanzibar in 1964…
To see the complete document, please visit: www.icae.org.uy
5.- IT S TIME TO REGISTER FOR CACE COURSES BY DISTANCE.
Certificate in Adult and Continuing Education (CACE), University of Victoria, Canada
FALL 2007- DISTANCE EDUCATION
FACILITATING ADULT LEARNING
(core) starts Wednesday, September 26
ActionAid
(AA) seeks a committed and competent leader for its programmes in Nepal. AA is a unique partnership of people partnering with community based organisations, non governmental organisations, social movements, people’s organization and activists, and critically engaging with governments, international organizations and private companies to ensure pro-poor policies, programmes and practices. Working in over 42 countries in Asia, Africa and the Americas and Europe, it is committed to a mission of working “with poor and excluded people to eradicate poverty and injustice”. Our innovative projects, social mobilization and policy advocacy work focuses on issues of women’s rights; food security; education; governance; HIV/AIDs and human security in conflict & emergencies. With a proven track record in leading and managing institutional development programmes, our Country Director will bring an experience of strategising for poverty eradication and social change, of working with social movements and being an active member of civil society with familiarity of the local context. She /He will adopt empowering management practice to expand and deepen our partnerships, programmes and accountability in the country programme. Our Country Director will be actively committed to gender equity, value driven and a team player with high level of people related skills. S/He will have the perspectives and competencies for rights-based and policy advocacy work; fundraising and donor relations; regional and international linkages and a sound understanding of organizational development. Familiarity with local strategies for poverty eradication and social change is desirable. Courage of conviction in taking public stands against issues of injustice and experience of dealing with governance boards would be an asset. Excellent communication skills both in English and local languages is a requirement. This is a senior position based in Kathmandu, Nepal with frequent travel nationally and internationally. The position is offered under ActionAid‘s international terms and conditions with an initial three year contract. An application letter along with an updated CV including two referees should be sent by 25th September 2007 to job.asia@actionaid.org . We will be able to respond only to the shortlisted candidates for the selection processes. For more information on ActionAid visit: www.actionaid.org Whilst all applicants will be assessed strictly on their individual merits, qualified women are especially encouraged to apply.
PLEASE TAKE NOTE One of the objectives of Voices Rising, the on line magazine from ICAE (International Council for Adult Education) is to democratize the access to information. Although Voices Rising believes that the information it receives is of trustable sources and before publishing it measures are taken to ensure that it is reliable, the possibility is always there that we can make a mistake or that we can be surprised by ill intentions. Therefore, and with the aim of protecting the interests of all our subscribers and readers, VOICES RISING recommends that you take all necessary precautions before taking significant decision in relation to the published information. If you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe to VOICES RISING please write to: voicesrising@icae.org.uy
[1] This is the full, working paper that was used by Anne Hope in her presentation so it has reference to plays, discussion groups etc.
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