ALA

CONFINTEA VI will be preceded by five Regional Preparatory Conferences, which are programmed in relation to the overall thematic focus, however adapted to the respective regional specificities. The regional conference will discuss and validate the respective Regional Synthesis Report (prepared on the basis of national reports on the development and state of the art of adult learning and education), identify the key issues on adult learning and education in the region, and suggest key recommendations and benchmarks for adult learning and education for CONFINTEA VI.

The Regional Preparatory Conference for Asia and the Pacific has been scheduled to be done from 6 to 8 August 2008 in Seoul (Republic of Korea) which is organized in cooperation with the Korean National Institute for Lifelong Education (NILE) on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Korea, the UNESCO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok and the UNESCO Office in Beijing. Each Member State in the Asia and Pacific Region is invited to send a delegation of at least three persons. Considering the wide-ranging nature of learning and education for adults, the composition of the delegation should, if possible (a) be multi-sectoral and (b) represent different categories of partners: government agencies, non-government and civil society organizations, research communities and the corporate sectors. The organizer committee also invites observers from some organizations including international non governments and networks operating at regional and sub-regional levels in Asia and Pacific. ASPBAE and ICAE participate in this Regional Preparatory Conference as observers.

The conference has been started since 6 October 2008 at Sheraton Grande Walkerhill, Seoul, Korea and it will be closed at 8 October. This report is an information update of the conference.

5 October 2008

CSO Strategizing Meeting for CONFINTEA VI Preparatory Conference for Asia and the Pacific

This meeting was initiated and led by ASPBAE which aimed to (a) orient/update on the conference (b) agree or common lobbying points for the Conference (c) map out space/opportunities for lobbying during the event and agree on CSO lobbying strategies and (d) define modes of CSO coordination during the event. This meeting was attended by Adama Ouane, Director of UIL, and CSOs delegations including GEO-ICAE. Adama shared and updated the Conference in terms of the goals, the key issues, the mechanism, and the drafting committee. The policy brief of ASPBAE was discussed in this meeting.

The meeting agreed on (a) ASPBAE would lobby to be a drafting committee member from CSO (b) Lobbying points for the drafting committee and (c) 6 CSO’s recommendations on policies and action in adult learning and education in Asia and Pacific including recommendation on gender, migrant, and people in conflict and disaster areas and (d) coordination modes during the event.

Based on this meeting, the team of GEO-ICAE (Yoko and Yanti) prepared the documents of ICAE and GEO to be shared to the chairs, the drafting committee members and participants during the event and discussed the strategies to use the advocacy spaces during the event for bringing up recommendations from ICAE and GEO-ICAE as well as ASPBAE as a regional network in the Asia and Pacific region.

6 October 2008

The objective of the first day of the Conference was to (a) set up the Conference Bureau consisted of Chair, Vice Chairs and Chair and Members of the Drafting group (b) reflect on the presented regional synthesis report and come up with the key contextual issues, challenges on and implications for adult learning and education (ALE) in the region, particularly in the five key areas which will be addressed by CONFINTEA VI: policies, financing, monitoring tools, inclusion, and participation.

The sessions of the first day were:

a. Morning session: (a) Opening Ceremony (b) Setting up the Conference Bureau: Chair and Vice Chairs, and the Drafting Committee (c) key note address by Ms Khuning Kasama Varavarn from Thailand (d) the Presentation of the regional synthesis report on adult learning and education in Asia and the Pacific region by Mr. Manzoor Ahmed.

b. Afternoon session: Discussion of key issues, trends and challenges (group discussion in 4 sub region: South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and the Pacific and short report on group discussion in plenary).

The session’s results were:
a. The meeting has elected the Conference Bureau as follows:

(1) Chair : Mr. Ahn Byong Man from Korea

Vice Chairs: Delegation Heads of India and Cambodia

(2) Chair of the Drafting Group: Dame Lady Carol Kidu from Papua New Guinea

Members:

- Government Delegation member from Korea, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Kazakhstan

- Manzoor Ahmed (the synthesis report writer)

- ASPBAE from the CSO.

b. The key issues, trends and challenges have been discussed and highlighted. CSOs contribution was significant especially in bringing up the important issues that have not been touched by the regional synthesis report and formal government presentations such as the importance of the civil society monitoring tools, gender issues, the education needs of the migrant and people in conflict areas.

The CSOs interventions that have been done during the first day of the conference were:
(a) To lobby the delegates and UNESCO to propose ASPBAE to be a drafting member. ASPBAE has been elected as a drafting member who is represented by Maria Khan.
(b) To influence the discussions and the results by bringing up CSO’s recommendations and participating actively in all sessions especially in group discussions.
(c) To distribute and share the CSOs documents to the Chair and members of the Drafting Committee. The GEO-ICAE documents and ASPBAE document have been shared to the Chair, Vice Chairs, and the drafting group (Chair and the members). Especially for GEO-ICAE documents, Yoko had made book marks and stickers to be distributed with the documents. These advocacy medias have helped very much in attracting the participants to read the documents.

In the first day, CSOs delegation led by ASPBAE has done a coordination meeting in the late afternoon to update the conference situation, advocacy spaces for the CSOs in the second day, and the effective ways to influence the meeting outcomes.