At a glance
📍 Where: Worldwide
✅ Impact: 10 cities were awarded in 2019, 170 member cities targeted as a whole in the next 2 years
🌍 SDG: 4, 17
The UNESCO GNLC initiative is a powerful contributor to spreading the benefits of city-wide lifelong learning. It promotes forging partnerships, fostering civic engagement, encouraging peer learning.
The initiative relies on a powerful motto: « Using the power of lifelong learning to secure a sustainable future ». It is a policy-oriented network that provides best-practices to its members. This takes the form of concrete tools, such as guidelines and comprehensive checklists of action points to enhance lifelong learning. Moreover, annual awards foster inspiration among member cities. These awards serve to identify and promote investments in education that benefit everyone, including those often marginalized, such as youth-at-risk, migrants, senior citizens, digitally excluded populations and persons with disabilities.
What is a Learning City?
A learning city is one that promotes lifelong learning for all. It also:
– revitalizes learning in families and communities;
– facilitates learning for and in the workplace;
– expands the use of modern learning technologies;
– improves quality and excellence in learning;
– fosters a lifelong learning culture;
– effectively mobilizes its resources in all sectors for the promotion of inclusive learning from basic education to higher education.
In doing so, the city promotes individual empowerment and social inclusion, economic development and cultural prosperity, and sustainable development.
