Community Education

What is the initiative and where is it implemented (city or country, for example)?

Sebenta National Institute is a public enterprise located in the Kingdom of Eswatini, formerly known in English as Swaziland, in Southern Africa.

The Uganda Rural Literacy and Community Development Association (URLCODA) was founded in 2009 by the Uganda Community Libraries Association (UgCLA). The community aims to provide information services via publications and special activities targeted at the needs of local populations. Most of the initiatives aim to promote literacy and are planned to be relevant to a set of predetermined objectives.

Shanghai was the first Chinese city to adopt the learning city concept: in 1999, it began to promote the lifelong development of all its citizens. At the level of policy and administration, this involved devising leadership mechanisms, reforming the city’s legal system and publishing guidance documents. On the ground, Shanghai began to offer a greater variety of learning opportunities to its citizens, including different methods of classroom teaching, digital learning, learning groups and study tours; all were designed to encourage participation in lifelong learning.

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).

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).