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.).

The initiative of transforming Gelsenkirchen from an industrial hub into a learning city was implemented as an attempt to revive a city suffering from high unemployment rates that had reached 15 per cent by 2016. In 1998, after careful consideration of the current situation, aGEnda 21 was initiated to increase the city’s sustainability and incorporate new learning strategies that would improve the quality of life. Since 2008, efficient measures have been implemented to promote lifelong learning based on education for sustainable development (ESD). In 2016, more than 120 businesses, institutions and organizations signed a Joint Declaration on Learning as a confirmation of commitment to the development of the city and the community.

The Community Learning Board (CLB) was established as an advisory committee to the City Council of Melton, Australia. (Community It acts as a mediator between the community and the council, providing recommendations to the council on lifelong education based on consultations with the community. The board elicits the opinions, needs and demands of the local community that will ensure social, cultural and economic development through lifelong learning. Members of CLB are appointed every four years or for the duration of a Community Learning Plan (UIL, 2015).

Lifelong learning villages are an initiative implemented in Mali by a French non-government organization Jeunesse et Développement, enabling young adults to participate in global development projects, with support from the British Embassy, the Stromme Foundation, Mali Development Group, the Methodist Relief and Development Fund, and DVV International. The establishment of vocational training and learning circles within the villages referred to as VITAL (‘Villages de l’Apprentissage Tout Au Long de la Vie’, French for ‘Villages of Learning Throughout Life’) aimed to increase the level of literacy and provide knowledge and skills that would benefit the local population (UIL, 2015).

The community colleges and universities in the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina in the south of Brazil emerged between 1940 and 1960 as community-based initiatives with the intention of engaging the local population seeking access to higher education. The distinctiveness of community universities (often referred to as Community Higher Education Institutions, CHEIs) is reflected in their hybrid state: combining the characteristics of both state and private organizations, they cannot be defined as either. Their non-profit and non-religious status, as well as their hybrid governing mode and their aims of social, economic and cultural development, ensure inclusion and result in management structures that enable local community representation and a democratic decision-making process. (Fioreze and McCowan, 2018).