International Policies in Adult Education: A Critical Feminist Analysis

This paper provides a critical feminist analysis of the intersection of policy,practice and decisions about funding for women, adult education, andempowerment. The author analyzes international policies—MDGs, CEDAW, CONFINTEA—and their effects on both the everyday lives of women and feminist organizations they are engaged with. It is clear that policy and funding decisionmaking is the axis on which women’s learning is promoted, defined and enacted. As 2015 nears, amidst the current rounds of negotiations for renewing international development priorities to replace the MDGs, there is a sense of deja vu: “Haven’t we been here before?”What role does critical adult education (possibly social movement learning) have? The short-term project funding cycle that NGO and INGOs find themselves is inefficient and drains potential for sustained change (Batliwala et al.,2013). Adult education for social justice cannot thrive in these conditions; we look therefore to these global policies and pronouncements understand thei reffects and challenges. CONFINTEA: Throughco-ordinated women’s activism (Scampini, 2003) the fifth world conference onadult education, CONFINTEA V (UNESCO, 1997), affirmed the importance of the advancement of women through education. However, by the time CONFINTEA V Iconcluded in 2009, many of these advances had faded (Stromquist, 2013). MDGS and the Post 2015 Agenda: The Millennium Development Goals defined global human development and poverty reduction priorities over the past decade. A feminist groundswell of criticism challenged the MDGs' narrow definition of women’s issues and the apparent ignorance of existing declarations promoting women’s empowerment (Barton, 2005). As the MDG timeline draws to a close, women’s organizations are vocally advocating that future development goals do not reproduce restrictive development policies. CEDAW:A Policy of One’s Own. One of the most important guiding documents globally for women to hold governments to account is the Conventionon the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (United Nations, 1981). The Commission on the Status of Women meetings held at the UN annually, chart progress, and shortcomings on women’s rights. Commission statements show a continued gap between policy goals and practice. Having analysed these policy documents, the author discusses the implications and challenges. It would appear that these policies, however removed from individual women’s lives, provide support to those advocating for sustainable change through organizations who act on gender-based participatory budgeting, link grassroots activism to international organizations, and promote feminist leadership education. In many ways, the voices and practices of these organizations are reflected in the policy discussion and are reminders of adul teducation’s historical commitment to process, content, and lifelong learning traditions in the struggle for a progressive feminism to effect policy change. These policies keep alive adult education’s long history of recognizing the links and common goals of feminism, radical adult education, and social democracy. As a joint force, feminist policy and adult education are a collaborative enterprise that needs to work with people, for people, for change, honouring the primacyof the critical.

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