Adult learning and education: Making an impact through the CONFINTEA Fellowship Programme

In 2015, six education specialists participated in the CONFINTEA Fellowship Programme offered by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL). The one-month fellowships are given to governmental and non-governmental education specialists from UNESCO Members States to allow them to develop national policies for their countries in adult learning and education. The fellows are expected to pay particular attention to the action areas of policy, governance, finance, participation and quality. The fellowship programme falls within UIL’s mandate to support Member States to increase capacities and advance inclusive and integrated adult learning education policies, as stipulated in the Belém Framework for Action.

The fellowship programme that took place in October 2015 brought together specialists from Ethiopia, Togo, Tunisia, Uruguay, Egypt and Indonesia. Together with adult education specialists at UIL, and informed by tutorials from Professor Kjell Rubenson from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada), the fellows worked on areas of education that present a challenge in their countries. These areas include:

• Expansion of the resource learning centers in Ethiopia (Yoseph Abera, Senior Expert, Adult and Non Formal Education, Ministry of Education)
• Improvement of the quality of literacy programmes with appropriate funding schemes in Togo (Catherine Djayouri Noulo-Kmey, Coordonnatrice/Progrmme National d’Appui à l’Alphabétisation Fonctionnelle des Femmes, Ministère de l'Action Sociale, de la Promotion de la Femme et de l'Alphabétisation)
• Certification of non-formal education in the Tunisian National Qualifications Framework (Mohamed Ben Youchâa, Director of Literacy and Adult Education, Ministry of Social Affairs)
• Development of family education initiatives in support of vulnerable children in Uruguay (Patricia Banchero Corbo, National Directorate of Education, Ministry of Education and Culture)
• Integration of quality factors for sustainable development within adult learning and education in Egypt (Nadia Salama Hashem Hassan, Planning and Research Principal, Adult Education Authority, Ministry of Education)
• Development of a new curriculum framework for community learning centres in Indonesia (Yohan Rubiyantoro, Ministry of Education and Culture)

Launched in 2011, the CONFINTEA Fellowship Programme is funded by UIL and targets education professionals from ministries and civil society organisations to help implement the commitments made by 144 Member States in CONFINTEA VI in 2009.