What is the initiative and where is it implemented (city or country, for example)?
At the end of the twentieth century Medellín, Colombia, was notorious for its crime rate – reaching 368 homicides per 100,000 individuals, excessive drug trafficking and high poverty level. Thanks to the implementation of lifelong learning strategies and continuous efforts of both private and public sectors and civic engagement, Medellín has managed to transform drastically and become a creative, proactive learning city. In 2017, the homicide rate was lowered to 19 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, with the poverty rate dropping from 22 per cent to 12 per cent (Learning Cities Networks, Medellín, n.d.).
How was the initiative established? How was it implemented?
The initiative was established in response to an urgent need to take measures against crime and violence through providing accessible, inclusive education. Several projects were set up to generate that transformation:
- Buen Comienzo (Good Start) provides help to women and children and facilitates early education;
- ‘En el colegio contamos con vos’ (In School We Count on You) is aimed at decreasing dropout rates;
- Sapiencia provides scholarships and other projects and organizations aimed at developing the city and providing lifelong learning for its inhabitants (Learning Cities Networks, Medellín, n.d.).
In an attempt to foster social and economic development, the mayor’s office focused on post-secondary education. The Medellín Mayor’s Office Project of Scholarships for Technologies provided 36,793 opportunities for access to education through scholarships and grants in collaboration with several universities, offering more than 40 programmes in the course of four years. Other strategies were aimed at promoting the acquisition of soft skills such as leadership and management and organization, which have become essential for the overwhelming majority of workplaces (ACI Medellín, 2021).
Some public institutions that support education, such as the Teacher Innovation Centre, Mova, gave teachers an opportunity for additional training and support (Learning Cities Networks, Medellín, n.d.). In addition, Medellín Library Parks, which have existed since 2007, contributed to the forging of a sense of belonging in the community by offering different services, such as access to the internet and information technology, workshops and learning spaces (Granda and Machin-Mastromatteo, 2018).
Which stakeholders are involved in the design and/or implementation of the initiative? Which sectors do they represent?
Associations of both public and private sectors are involved in the initiative, including the Agency for Cooperation and Investment in Medellín and the Metropolitan Area – ACI Medellín, the Medellín Mayor’s Office, public and private educational institutions of different segments from early education to adult education, technological development centres, educators, and the inhabitants of the city (Learning Cities Networks, Medellín, n.d.; ACI Medellín, 2021).
What are the impacts of the initiative in terms of facilitating lifelong learning? Whom does it benefit and how?
Implementation of a diverse range of practices has had a significant impact on citizens of all ages. Through the Buen Comienzo initiative the city benefited 82,650 children and more than 12,000 women, increasing their quality of life and providing education on early childhood development. Although it started as a local initiative, thanks to the support of national authorities the programme has spread to other Colombian cities.
The strategy ‘En el colegio contamos con vos’ (In School We Count on You) managed to get 7,648 students to return to school, encouraging educators and social workers to investigate reasons leading to individual dropouts and find ways to attract youth back to school, which significantly undermined criminal structures and decreased dropout rate to the historical minimum of 2.9 per cent.
Another initiative, Escuelas Entorno Protector (Protective School Environment), has enabled 229 educational institutions to create and promote a healthy school environment and educate around 219,000 young people on their civil rights, sexuality and reproduction (ACI Medellín, 2021). Adult and senior learning are encouraged through discounts and free-of-charge workshops, and course audits from universities. As a result, in 2019, Medellín was selected by UNESCO as one of its ten global Learning Cities. To support the initiative and continue the city's growth as a learning and innovation hub, the municipal government allocates 35 – 37 per cent of its resources to education (ACI Medellín, 2021).
In 2019, the International Conference on Learning Cities was held in Medellín, which resulted in the signing of the Medellín Manifesto by officials and representatives from more than 100 cities and 60 countries. The manifesto established goals for sustainable lifelong education on the principles of inclusion and equality.
One of the main focuses of the Medellín lifelong learning initiative has been to make education accessible for all age groups and socioeconomic backgrounds by investing in the inclusion of youth-at-risk, migrants, people with special needs, older people and those deprived of digital resources (UIL, n.d.).
References
ACI Medellín, 2021. Learning city. [Online] Available at: www.acimedellin.org/?lang=en [Accessed 6 February 2021].
Granda, R. and Machin-Mastromatteo, J. D., 2018. Medellin Library Parks: A model for Latin American libraries and urban equipment. Information Development, 34(2), 201–205.
Learning Cities Networks, n.d. Medellín. [Online] Available at: http://lcn.pascalobservatory.org/participants/medellin [Accessed 6 February 2021].
UIL, n.d. Learning cities: Drivers of inclusion and sustainability. [Online] Available at: https://uil.unesco.org/lifelong-learning/learning-cities/learning-cities-drivers-inclusion-and-sustainability [Accessed February 6 2021].