Experts’ Meeting to Develop Generic Guide on Decentralized Planning and Management of Literacy and Continuing Education, 1-5 June 2009, Bangkok, Thailand

More than 770 million adults are living without literacy skills in the world. 70% of these live in rural areas of the Asia-Pacific region. In order to reach the unreached and effectively implement literacy and continuing education policies and programmes, effective decentralized planning and management are essential – especially to help arrive at locally relevant solutions to literacy-related issues confronting specific localities. Decentralization of literacy and continuing education planning and programme implementation can help the programme to be more context specific, people-oriented, disadvantaged-focused, gender sensitive and more participatory. If effectively undertaken, decentralized planning and management have the potential to take full account of the local situation (context specific illiteracy problems) and develop sustainable plans and programmes to overcome them.

Recognizing the need to address diverse contexts within countries, several countries in the region including the LIFE (Literacy Initiative for Empowerment) countries in the region (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan and PNG) have realized the need for decentralized planning and management of literacy and continuing education programmes for more coverage and better impacts. These countries are seeking information on good practices of decentralized planning and management of literacy and continuing education. In response to such needs in the region, UNESCO APPEAL unit organized an Experts Meeting to develop a generic guide on decentralized planning and management of literacy and continuing education from 1 to 5 June 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Objectives of the meeting

The major objectives of the meeting were:

• To review and discuss  various models and good practices of decentralized planning and management of literacy and continuing education 
• To identify key problems  and challenges to implementing/translating  literacy plans and programmes at decentralized levels and suggest possible solutions for overcoming them;
• To identify, discuss and agree on,  key elements that need to be included in a generic guide on decentralized planning and management of literacy and continuing education
• To agree on the structure of the content of a generic guide on decentralized planning and management of literacy and continuing education plans and programmes
• To prepare a draft of the generic guide for local adaptation and utilization at national/sub-national levels.

Expected Outcomes

• Key issues and challenges in implementing/translating plans and policies of literacy and continuing education in the region identified
• Various models and good practices of decentralized planning and management of literacy and continuing education discussed
• Content outlines of the generic guide on decentralized planning and management of literacy and continuing education finalized
• The generic guide based on the agreed outlines drafted

Meeting Agenda Items

Following were the major agenda items of the meeting:

• Introduction and background of the entire activity
• Discussion and identification of key issues and challenges in implementing/translating plans and policies of literacy and continuing education in the region
• Discussion and development of objectives and scope of regional guide
• Development and discussion on content outlines for the regional guide
• Discussion on various models and good practices of decentralized planning and management in general and particularly in the field of literacy and continuing
• Drafting of the guide based on the agreed content outlines
• Peer sharing of the draft guide to get comments and suggestions for improvement
• Revision of the guide based on the comments
• Conclusion

Participants of the meeting

This meeting was attended by experts from Bangladesh, India, Thailand and Philippines apart from experts from UNESCO Dhaka and UNESCO Bangkok office. 

Venue of the Meeting

This meeting was organised at UNESCO Bangkok office in Thailand.