On 24-25 May this year the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, UIL, will be celebrating the 60^th anniversary of UNESCO’s presence in Hamburg. The anniversary celebration will highlight the Institute’s impact on education policy and programmes throughout the 60 years of its work focussing on lifelong learning, adult learning and education, and adult literacy in all world regions.

What was then the UNESCO Institute for Education was established in Hamburg as part of UNESCO’s commitment in post-war Germany. Now, as UNESCO’s resource centre in lifelong learning, UIL conducts and collates research through its extensive networks to make a case for the achievement of literacy as the foundation of lifelong learning and for the promotion and improvement of youth and adult learning and education as integral parts of lifelong learning. The Institute has had  a central advocacy role in promoting the latter by organising the last two international conferences on adult education (CONFINTEA), which take place every 12 years, most recently in Belém, Brazil, in 2009 (CONFINTEA VI).

The international lifelong learning community is cordially invited to attend the anniversary celebrations that will start on 24 May with public lectures on lifelong learning in cooperation with the University of Hamburg, and a dinner reception at UIL’s newly-renovated premises. On 25 May there will be a series of workshops for international or global networks and projects.