After a busy day filled with exchanges and the participation of 650 attendees in the IV International Conference of Learning Cities UNESCO 2019, several challenges became evident in the implementation of practices that benefit the entire population, especially those at a disadvantage such as at-risk youth, immigrants, the elderly, the digitally excluded population and people with disabilities.
The Medellín Manifesto is a result of the IV International Conference on Learning Cities 2019 which seeks to promote inclusion as a primary principle of learning.
Therefore, the Medellín Manifesto was adopted to overcome these challenges and work for population inclusion, and a fund was created under the multi-donor financing modality to support lifelong learning programs in cities of all continents. This strategy will be applied from 2019 to 2021 to strengthen the Network, create knowledge, and develop learning policies and instruments which allow the creation of capacities that will reach the population effectively.
The biggest challenge of the cities around the world is to define how lifelong learning policies and practices should contribute to the inclusion of the most vulnerable populations
Medellín, a success story
During the event, 10 cities received the 2019 Learning City Award in recognition of their best practices for the quality of education and the creation of lifelong learning opportunities: Aswan (Egypt), Chengdu (People’s Republic of China), Heraklion (Greece), Ibadan (Nigeria), Medellín (Colombia), Melitopol (Ukraine), Petaling Jaya (Malaysia), Santiago (Mexico), Seodaemun-gu (Republic of Korea) and Sonderborg (Denmark).
The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) and the Medellín Mayor’s Office jointly organized the conference.
The UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities is a key instrument to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 4 and SDG 11.
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