Background (what has been done in Uzbekistan so far)
Over the years, DVV International and the UNESCO Tashkent Office, in cooperation with
national partners, and in close cooperation with the National Commission of the Republic of
Uzbekistan for UNESCO Affairs, organised a number of activities aimed at key specialists and
decision-makers, to raise awareness on international trends in adult education and LLL. Some
of the most significant are as follows:
1.
Regional conference “Education for all – lifelong learning in Central Asia”, June 4-
5, 2003, Tashkent. Around 180 representatives from Asian, CIS and European
countries participated in the conference.
2.
National forum “Education for all”, November 15-17, 2011, Tashkent. In total more
than 120 representatives of governmental, state, non-state, private and
international organisations from Tashkent, regions and Karakalpakstan participated
in the forum.
3.
National conference “Rethinking education in the context of current reforms in
Uzbekistan: policy, quality and lifelong learning”, December 14, 2017. State
partners, representatives of private sector and development partners, international
and national experts participated in the conference (around 120 people).
All these events concluded with the adoption of final documents, which contained
recommendations on development and policy on adult education (AE) and LLL and expressed
a consensus of discussions between various stakeholders representing state, non-state and
private sectors. As a result, the professional national discourse emerged, which a priori
recognised the need for a comprehensive public LLL policy in Uzbekistan.
Hearings of two senate committees of Oliy Majlis (on education and foreign relations) that took
place in summer 2016, in cooperation with UNESCO and DVV International, made a
considerable contribution to the process – they resulted in a shared understanding of the
importance of deliberate AE and LLL policies.
As a result, during governmental consultations with the UN organisations in Uzbekistan this
challenge was recognised as one of the key challenges in education and was reflected in the
“UN Development Assistance Framework for Uzbekistan” (UNDAF) for the period 2016-2020
as a specific objective in education. This document, signed by Uzbekistan’s government,
entrusted UNESCO with the responsibility of achieving this objective, with DVV International
as an active partner.
Thus, the agenda raises the question of elaborating a policy document establishing the LLL-
approach. The present document is an attempt to develop a concept for the sector that guides
further policies and the implementation of strategic actions.
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