Resources
Explore a wide range of valuable resources on GCED to deepen your understanding and enhance your research, advocacy, teaching, and learning.
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Third Global Report on Adult Learning and Education: The Impact of Adult Learning and Education on Health and Well-Being; Employment and the Labour Market; and Social, Civic and Community Life Year of publication: 2016 Corporate author: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) This Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE III) comes out as the international community works towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It is also reference and advocacy documents, providing information for analysts and policymakers, and reminding Member States of their commitment. Here policymakers will find high-quality evidence to support policies, strategies and budgets. Stakeholders will find compelling arguments for how adult learning and education promotes sustainable development, healthier societies, better jobs and more active citizenship. Researchers will find entry points and ideas for future research. 
Suwon-Osan CONFINTEA VI Mid-Term Review Statement: The Power of Adult Learning and Education; A Vision Towards 2030 Year of publication: 2018 Corporate author: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) The Sixth International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VI), held in Brazil in December 2009, closed with the adoption of the Belém Framework for Action, which recorded the commitments of Member States and presented a strategic guide for the global development of adult learning and education from a lifelong learning perspective. The third Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE III), published in 2016, drew on survey data to evaluate progress made by countries in fulfilling the commitments made in Brazil, while also highlighting some of the contributions adult learning and education can make to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The CONFINTEA VI Mid-Term Review, held in Suwon, Republic of Korea, in October 2017, took stock of progress made by Member States in the past eight years, looking ahead to GRALE IV in 2019. This statement represents the overall perspective of delegates and their recommendations for the future. 
Community-based Learning for Sustainable Development (UIL policy brief 8) Year of publication: 2017 Corporate author: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development sets ambitious goals to transform our world, balancing the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. To rise to the challenges posed by these goals and to ensure no one is left behind, it is critically important that local communities are involved in the planning and management of sustainable development and the promotion of sustainable lifestyles. The 2030 Agenda encompasses all aspects of our lives, which implies that learning, if it is to contribute fully to this agenda, must be seen as both lifelong and life-wide. The relevance of community-based non-formal education and informal learning for children, young people and adults, especially those not in education or from marginalized or disadvantaged parts of society, must be recognized and fostered in every country of the world if the 17 Sustainable Development Goals are to be met. This Policy Brief proposes six action principles and four policy recommendations to advance community-based lifelong learning for sustainable development. They summarize the lessons of successful community-based learning for sustainable development, drawn from around the world. 
Recognition, Validation and Accreditation of Youth and Adult Basic Education as a Foundation of Lifelong Learning Year of publication: 2018 Corporate author: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) Since its 2005 General Conference, UNESCO has supported the recognition, validation and accreditation (RVA) of the outcomes of nonformal and informal learning for youth and adults and acknowledged the importance of RVA in the development of lifelong learning systems. More recently, the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, in partnership with UNESCO’s Section of Partnerships, Cooperation and Research, has undertaken a number of comprehensive analyses of policy and practice in this area. These studies have highlighted the need to focus on the RVA of non-formal basic education.Globally, the scale of need is enormous. There are significant challenges in integrating the recognition, validation and accreditation of the outcomes of non-formal and informal learning at the basic education level into existing RVA systems and in enabling young people and adults without basic education to complete such processes successfully.This report summarizes the research and policy dialogue of an international expert group invited by UNESCO to three meetings in 2016. It focuses on three themes – principles, policy and practice – and provides examples of how the issue is being approached across the world. It offers 12 conclusions, based on the evidence considered by the expert group, and proposes a number of key messages for stakeholders in Member States, including policy-makers and the research community. 
Institutional practices of implementing lifelong learning in higher education: research report Year of publication: 2023 Corporate author: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) | Shanghai Open University In many countries, higher education is gaining prominence as a means for the general population to engage in lifelong learning (LLL), whether for personal or professional development, or to participate in broader societal change. In some cases, national governments have introduced policies or funding instruments that create incentives for higher education institutions (HEIs) to align their offerings more closely with changing labour market demands and societal needs, and to expand access for groups previously underrepresented in higher education. Key trends in the higher education sector and the associated global socio-economic transformations were discussed in detail in the international survey report, which was published as part of the research project on the contribution of higher education institutions to LLL (UIL and SOU, 2023). This case study report moves from an international overview of the policies, structures and mechanisms that support LLL in higher education to the close study of institutional practices. It explores the interrelations between national policy environments and institutional strategies. It examines different approaches taken by universities to develop, implement and monitor LLL activities, and further provides practical examples of how universities engage with diverse groups of learners through their LLL mission. As such, this report’s value lies in offering both general insights into the implementation of LLL in HEIs, and case-specific descriptions and analyses of institutional policies and practices. 
Learning Cities and the SDGs: A Guide to Action Year of publication: 2017 Corporate author: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) This document is a Guide to Action for mainstreaming lifelong learning as a key driver to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The document seeks to facilitate the process of transforming global goals into local actions by showing concrete steps, which members of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities (GNLC) have taken to promote green and healthy environments, equity and inclusion as well as decent work and entrepreneurship. This Guide to Action is closely linked to the Cork Call to Action for Learning Cities, adopted by the participants of the third International Conference on Learning Cities, which took place from 18–20 September 2017 in Cork, Ireland. 
[Summary] 4th Global Report on Adult Learning and Education: Leave No One Behind: Participation, Equity and Inclusion; Key Messages and Executive Summary Year of publication: 2020 Corporate author: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) The fourth Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (GRALE 4) argues that achieving SDG 4, and realizing its cross-cutting contribution to the other 16 goals, demands a much more integrated and comprehensive approach to education, with adult learning and education at its heart. GRALE 3, published in 2016, showed that adult learning and education produces significant benefits across a range of policy areas. Countries reported a positive impact on health and well-being, employment and the labour market, and social, civic and community life. GRALE 4, while reinforcing the message that the benefits of participation in ALE are substantial, shows that they remain unevenly distributed. 
Adult Education and the Challenge of Exclusion: UIL Policy Brief 10 Year of publication: 2020 Corporate author: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) The fourth Global Report on Adult Learning and Education (G RALE 4) shows that raising participation in adult learning and education (ALE) is pivotal for achieving not only Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 on education, but also the other goals of the 2030 Agenda, spanning issues from climate change to poverty reduction. This places an onus on countries to review ALE policies and progress in the light of evidence on participation, and to invest in sustainable provision that is accessible to all learners, throughout their lives and in all the different contexts in which adults learn. 
Youth Driving Community Education: Testimonies of Empowerment from Asia and the Pacific Year of publication: 2014 Corporate author: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) | Asia South Pacific Association for Basic and Adult Education (ASPBAE) This publication presents a collection of testimonies from young women and men from vulnerable backgrounds who have transformed their lives through community education and development activities. Their testimonies describe the challenges they faced in pursuing an education, how they benefited from community education programmes, and the active roles they now play in community education and development.The publication will meet its objectives if it inspires young people and their partners to take action to:> Improve educational and learning environments for young men and women;> Improve the participation of young women in community building and democratic processes; and> Engage young men and women as active citizens working towards peace, democracy and sustainable development. 
UNESCO COVID-19 Education Response: Open and Distance Learning to Support Youth and Adult Learning (Education Sector Issue Note; No. 2.5 – June 2020) Year of publication: 2020 Corporate author: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) A new UNESCO issue note, produced by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), aims to support education policy-makers and planners in ensuring open and distance learning to support youth and adult learning in the context of the current pandemic, now and in its aftermath.Since the COVID-19 outbreak and the worldwide school closures that followed, ministries of education have endeavoured to ensure continuity of learning and encourage schools and educational institutions to explore and utilize online and distance modes of learning. Unfortunately, learners outside of the formal school system who are already in need of urgent learning support, such as low-skilled adults, women, out-of-school youth, migrants and refugees, and persons with disabilities, have suffered disproportionally from the suspension of face-to-face learning at the majority of adult learning centres and non-formal educational institutions.The current pandemic calls for people from people from all socio-economic backgrounds, wherever they live in the world, to develop new knowledge and skills in order to cope with the uncertainty that this crisis imposes. These learning needs include basic health literacy, media literacy, parenting for home-schooling children and professional development to counteract job losses brought on by the pandemic. Correspondingly, enrolment in massive open online courses (MOOCs) is soaring. As such, there have been positive and demand-driven trends in exploring alternative options, such as open and distance learning (ODL), to ensure the continuity and expansion of non-formal education and adult learning.This issue note takes stock of opportunities and challenges in using ODL, both online and offline as defined in the UNESCO Issue Note on Distance Learning Strategies, for youth and adult learners outside the formal education system. After examining key issues and illustrating promising cases from public and private sectors, it provides key messages for policy interventions to support inclusive lifelong learning for youth and adults during and after the current pandemic.UNESCO Education Sector’s issue notes cover key topics related to the COVID-19 education response.