Final declaration from the VIII ICAE World Assembly in Malmö

A WORLD WORTH LIVING IN
We, adult educators of the world, citizens from all continents and adult learners working in every aspect of personal and collective empowerment, participating at the VIII World Assembly of the International Council for Adult Education in Malmo, Sweden, on the 15th and 16th of June 2011, believe in the possibility of a world worth living in, and we declare our collective determination to work towards making it a reality all around the planet.

A world worth living in is one where all women and men can live in dignity, where they can exercise citizenship, and their right to create, to learn and to think and act critically. It is a world where everyone can express and voice their opinion in a context that understands and celebrates plurality and the peaceful resolution of conflict as the cornerstones of democracy. A world, too, where all can learn from our differences, strengthen solidarity and community building, and where everyone can participate on equal terms in public life.

A world worth living in is one where the world economy is at the service of the well being of women and men, where all can participate freely and with dignity, develop their full potential and enjoy the benefits of this shared achievement.

A world worth living in is aware of the need to change radically the ways we produce and consume, a planet where nature is not taken as a capital to be exploited for furthering economic growth, where citizens become more vigilant and proactive at both global and local level, and where clean and safe energy is secured for all.

So, a world worth living in includes a holistic view that recognizes the interdependence of environmental, social, cultural and economic perspectives, and poses challenges that demand collective sharing of responsibility – both at local, regional, national and global level.

A world worth living in is a world where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights must apply to all men and women living in one country or migrating around our planet. It is a world where equality and social justice prevails, overcoming all forms of discrimination, and where patriarchy is overcome. It is a world where, in achieving real equality, recognition and redistribution go hand in hand. A world worth living in is a multicultural world whose splendor and richness resides in the celebration of its diversity, and one which recognizes the linguistic rights of peoples.

A world worth living in is a world where everyone children and adults enjoys the right to read and write. Since we now have a world where seventy million children, mostly girls, do not have a place in school and where nearly one billion adults, overwhelmingly women, have no chance of learning to read and write we need a commitment for urgent transformation.

A world worth living in is a world economy that includes, values and recognizes the informal economy where women in great numbers are active in care work and in subsistence production and as informal educators. It is a world where care work is a shared responsibility of government, enterprises and families, and where educational programmes and plans help to overcome stereotyping and the sexual division of labour.

A world worth living in is a multilateral world complying with United Nations’ rules and a world governance strengthened by meaningful participation from a globally and locally informed civil society.

A world worth living in needs high quality learning experiences, skilled educators enjoying better work conditions, drawing on rich practices from all parts of the world, including popular education, feminist education and education for transformation.

Such an active learning world, enriched by mutual learning across boundaries of all sorts is today a necessity more than ever. Yet it cannot become a reality without the full participation and mobilization of a learning civil society.

We, the participants, declare that education and learning is a fundamental human right that enables the realisation of other human rights. We are committed to working to make sure that this right can be a reality enjoyed by adults and youth out of school throughout the world.

We recognise that much has been done to recognise priorities for international action. The MDGs, EFA and CONFINTEA are all inter-related, but coherence in implementation and monitoring is missing. None of the MDGs can be achieved without making the right to learn a reality, yet it is not visible in the goals and indicators. We are committed to the achievement of the MDGs, EFA goals and the CONFINTEA agenda in a mutually-reinforcing manner and will be involved in all the important advocacy efforts on the global level.

We call on civil society organizations to review their processes, and forge strategies to nurture the emerging new way of life and a new economic and ecological solidarity, and to discuss how another planet is possible, where all have access to clean and safe energy, in order to reach the critical levels of consciousness required to sustain action on climate justice.

We insist that States, UN agencies and multilateral organizations recognize how poverty and social exclusion cannot be dissociated from the structural inequalities reflected in and reinforced by the increasingly uneven distribution of learning provision.

We acknowledge that, within a lifelong learning framework, social exclusion not only means exclusion from learning opportunities but also the perpetuation of a knowledge hierarchy which, consciously or unconsciously, excludes access to certain types of knowledge. In a world worth living in, access to all forms of knowledge will be open and democratised, and we call upon States to develop action plans to that end.

We ask States to guarantee the right to education for young people and adults, and especially the fundamental right to basic education without discrimination, to give these key rights the legal status they deserve, and to allocate the resources required for their full implementation. There is no more urgent priority than this.

We require new adult learning and education policies where adult learning and education is not seen as an additional expense, an appendix to education policy, but as an essential part of the solution to the challenges facing humanity today. People without access to learning opportunities and power need active state support and an effective adult education infrastructure. Special attention should be given to sponsoring programmes that secure equality of voice, representation, recognition, empowerment as autonomous citizens for women.

We invite States to look at the uniqueness of “folkbildning/folkeoplysning”, the popular and non formal education provided in the Nordic countries, and to recognize the impact of such learning on health, on environment, on intergenerational education, on citizenship and the quality of life. Adults have a right to be well informed and to understand the changes that affect their lives, and those of their wider society; to participate in those changes, and to shape them. Learning has a key role to play in enabling them to do so.

We live in a world rich in the diverse experience of its peoples. We need policies that foster respect and draw inspiration from the concerns, distinctive knowledge and history of its indigenous peoples.

We propose that States, unions, enterprises and social actors should frame their work-related adult learning and education policies to maximize the positive role that learning can plan in technological and industrial change and to avoid jeopardizing the right to decent work for all. These policies should address the risks of further exclusion of already disadvantaged communities. They should recognize how changes in the formal economy generate new demands for learning for every woman and man in the workforce, as old jobs are displaced by new technologies and ways of working. And they should recognize how meeting the full and multidimensional learning demands of women and men will create more effective and sustainable workplaces and contribute substantially to the achievement of the right to decent work for all.

We ask States, in their work-related adult learning and education policies, to take into account the massive expansion of migration within and across boundaries of young people and adults who flee violence and political oppression, and move in order to survive, and of people moving to search for decent work. We invite UN and ILO to monitor the full implementation of norms and convention on the rights of migrants and their families.

We ask, too, for Member States, UN agencies and multilateral agencies to assure the educational needs of peoples in low-lying states, especially in Asia and the South Pacific, where rising sea-levels threaten livelihoods and the loss of nationhood.

We call on states to recognise the role education has in preparing offenders for re-integration and full participation in society, and to ensure access to education in prison.

In addition, in order to enable women working as carers and retired people to fulfil their potential we need a cultural and organisational transformation at the level of family, community and the State so that all can contribute to and benefit from the care economy, and to participate effectively in the public sphere. Learning is a key to this transformation.

We ask UNESCO to go on monitoring thoroughly the implementation of the Belem Plan of Action adopted in 2009 and, as required in Belem, to call on Members States to report on their implementation of the Belem Plan of Action adopted in 2009, to invest in civil society organisations’ full involvement in the process, and to disseminate these reports at world level.