Civil society has led the charge over the last 30 years drawing the world’s attention to the grand challenges, the big issues and the deep crises that we face as humans amongst the other life forms on the planet we call Earth. The United Nations has been a vehicle to amplify these issues and facilitate conversations with member states, the governments of our many nations. The MDGs are a case in point. The post-2015 goals are the next stage in that process.

The city of Cork has again shown its capacity for innovation by being the first city in Ireland to establish a Food Policy Council. This initiative is being linked to EcCoWell development in Cork, and will have cross representation between the EcCoWell planning group and the new Food Policy Council.

PASCAL welcomes Galway as the third Irish city to become a participant in the PIE exchanges of information and experience, joining Cork and Limerick. The Galway stimulus paper written by Evelyn Fanning, has a focus on Galway’s development as a WHO Healthy City.

The attached report written by Paolo Federighi, Professor of Adult Education at the University of Florence (Italy) is based on the review of several EU funded research projects under the 6^th and 7^th Framework Programmes for Research.

Referring to the work of institutions such as CEDEFOP, Eurofund, Eurostat and OECD related to lifelong leaning, as well as research by academics in the area, it proposes a number of policy and research priorities to support adult and continuing education.

What do statistical data say about your country’s vocational education and training (VET) and lifelong learning policies? How does your country compare with the European Union (EU) average and other Member States?