ASPBAE Capacity Building Workshop on Advocacy for Adult Learning and Education

ALE, probably represents the educational sub-sector, where the percentage of CSO activities in implementation and shaping the agenda is the highest. Many governments leave it to non-state actors to provide the necessary services in basic education, skills trainings or financial literacy for youth and adults. Public resources for this sector are often scarce and the working conditions for trainers and organizers precarious. The extremely high level of privatization leads to inequality in access to adult education. Against this background, the strong need for more effective advocacy and lobbying for the interests of ALE providers rooted in civil society and communities is urgent. 

ASPBAE and DVV International’s Regional Office in South East Asia jointly organized the “‘Capacity Building Workshop on Advocacy for Adult Learning and Education (ALE)”’ on September 4-6 in Bangkok, Thailand, to discuss the following questions: How can education rights campaigners and education coalitions all over Asia support their members and other actors in their struggle for improving the frameworks for ALE as the most neglected sector in lifelong learning? How can the high involvement of CSOs in delivering ALE be capitalized for a stronger voice on ALE policy and public provisioning? How can governments be held accountable for financing and delivering on adult education, especially for marginalized communities?

The workshop gathered partners and members of ASPBAE from Asian South Pacific region, South East Asia and Central Asia – education coalitions, governmental education providers and civil society and international organisations, and was designed to strengthen the knowledge and skills of civil society education coalitions and adult education providers to enable a scaling up of ALE advocacy in their countries and in other transnational policy spaces. Importantly, this event was also used for ASPBAE members to plan out strategies and activities at the country and regional levels to lobby governments to invest in quality adult learning and education.

From the Central Asian region one representative of the Education Coalition Tajikistan and two members of DVV International staff from Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan participated in order to transfer and apply the knowledge in shaping and developing their own policy-level activities.