The Second Continental Exchange Academy on ALE-Advocacy of the Continental Exchange Project "Eastern Neighbours" was held from 30 May to 3 June 2023 in cooperation with the European Association for Education of Adults (EAEA) and the International Council on Adult Education (ICAE). The event was hosted in Sarajevo and co-organised by the office of DVV International in Bosnia and Herzegovina. 30 representatives from six countries of the Continental Exchange project - Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Kosovo, Moldova and Ukraine - attended the event.
The first Regional Academy on ALE-Advocacy which was held in Istanbul, in December 2022, discussed the benefits of Adult Learning and Education as arguments for advocacy work. Thus, the following aspects of ALE were reviewed:
- Emerging trends in ALE at the European and global level
- Financing Adult Learning and Education, globally and in Europe
- Participation in ALE: relevance, principles, and benchmarks
When discussing the process of advocating for ALE, tools and methods of good advocacy work were considered. As the result of the first Academy, representatives from all six countries agreed to draft their national advocacy plans within the next two years with the advisory and financial support of the Continental Exchange project.
The Regional Academy on ALE Advocacy in Sarajevo aimed to assist the representatives of the Continental Exchange project countries to finalise their national advocacy plans with the support and advice of experts from EAEA and ICAE and to provide input on additional advocacy methods and tools to be used during the implementation of the national plans.
The workshop began with the discussion of the struggles when drafting the national advocacy plans and sharing general experiences of the work process. Afterwards, the representatives of civil society organisations (associations, networks and platforms) and DVV International representatives from six partner countries of the project presented their national advocacy plans (NAP) developed during 2023. The trainer team provided feedback on the NAP’s presented by each country. In addition, the active involvement of the participants in the process of commenting and evaluating the documents was valuable. The takeaways from the presentations were emphasised by reflecting in mixed groups composed of partners from different countries.
Input on other successful advocacy campaigns, methods and creative tools that can be used for ALE-advocacy complemented the capacity building event. These were presented as the next step for further development and finalising of NAP. Elevator pitches were one of the working methods proposed for the promotion of national advocacy plans. The groups were asked to prepare short pitches of their NAPs as if they were talking to policy makers.
At the end of the event, general feedback from participants and experts were provided to the organisers and next steps within the Continental Exchange project were discussed.
This Regional Academy on ALE-Advocacy will continue in 2024: the developed national advocacy plans of at least two countries will be implemented with the support from the Continental Exchange project as a continuation on the advocacy work.
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