DVV International: Detail

December 2022

During 13-15 December, in Istanbul, Turkey, the Regional Academy on ALE-Advocacy for representatives of six countries from East and Southeast Europe (Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Ukraine and Moldova) took place. The organizer of the event was the Continental Exchange project “Eastern Neighbours” and was held with the engagement of the European Association for Education of Adults (EAEA) and the International Council on Adult Education (ICAE).

The objective of the Regional Academy on ALE-Advocacy was to gather representatives of key partners of DVV International from national associations/alliances/NGOs working on the promotion of ALE in the six countries of the Continental Exchange project and the ALE advocacy experts to enable mutual learning, exchange, and elaboration of new advocacy approaches, methods, and strategies each considering national contexts of participating countries.

The Agenda of the Regional Academy on ALE-Advocacy contained relevant topics of Adult Learning and Education (ALE) at the global level and the European level. On the topic on financing ALE by national and/or local authorities key results of the project Financing Adult Learning in Europe project (FinALE) were presented, the ALE funding tools and their relevance. The transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) not to leave anyone people behind, was reflected in the session about the participation in ALE in Europe and globally. The barriers to participation in ALE were subjected within brainstorming and the group work on increasing participation in ALE. The event was concluded by the presentations on Advocacy for ALE and steps towards good advocacy in the future. Here the participants could already outline the ideas for the advocacy strategy for their country, so that they can be taken over later in the advocacy plans.
During the event, plenary and interactive activities were harmoniously mixed.

The delegations of each country had preparatory tasks for Regional Academy on ALE-Advocacy – to provide a short overview about ALE policy, structures, key issues, key stakeholders in their countries using visual materials that were included in posters. Thus, a whole gallery about ALE in the wider region was created. Successful initiatives from each country that aimed to increase participation in ALE were shared as case studies in the plenary.

As the result of the Academy representatives of at least four countries out of six will agree to draft their national advocacy plans within the next two years with the advisory and financial support of the project.

The Regional Academy on ALE-Advocacy will be conducted consecutively in the years 2023 and 2024 as well.

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