Leading  Issues Journal  

The Impact of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) on The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)  

Peter Sainsbury, Director of the Division of Population Health in Central Sydney Area Health Service is also an Associate Professor in the School of Public Health at Sydney University , President of the Public Health Association of Australia, and a member of the NH&MRC.  Peter’s qualifications and experience cover medicine, health planning, sociology, health services management and public health.  

In this article, Sainsbury asks:

"How many things can you think of that are Australian, good for patients, good for doctors, good for taxpayers, good for government, and widely recognised as one of the best in the world? Well, the The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)  is one. It ensures that all Australians have access to essential medications when they are sick." 

Sainsbury explains that, "Because the PBS also involves very strict controls on which drugs get onto the PBS list and because the government negotiates very good deals with the drug companies, Australia has one of the cheapest drug bills in the developed world.   We get the best drugs at the lowest prices. If a new drug is no better for patients than an existing drug, the PBS won’t pay the producer any more for it. Or to put it another way, the price Australia pays for a drug is based on its usefulness to the patient (its therapeutic worth), not how much it cost the company to develop it. In fact, the system is so good that compared with prices in the USA , the PBS saves Australians about $1-2.5 billion dollars per year.  The result is that every Australian can get the drugs they need when they need them without going into debt, and without having to make impossible choices between essential medications and other essentials such as food or rent. " 

So if the PBS is such a good scheme, why is the government wanting the parliament to pass the Free Trade Agreement? Is this Agreement in the best interests of Australians' health and health dollars? What are the implications of this Agreement for all Australians in the next 10 years and what does it mean for the drug companies in the USA and their Australian subsidiaries?  Sainsbury focuses on these issues and provides an analysis of his position that the FTA will have harmful effects on the PBS.

To view the article, see:  The Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS)  

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Peak Australian Community Organisations call for rejection of US Free Trade Agreement

The Australian Council of Trade Unions, the Australian Council of Social Service, Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of NSW, the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Public Health Association of Australia, the Doctors Reform Society, Australian Writers' Guild, Australian Catholic Social Justice Council, UnitingCare NSW.ACT, Linux Australia and other organisations will launched a statement calling on the Senate to block the USFTA implementing legislation in August. A copy of the Statement with all signatories is below:

Joint Statement
Community Organisations representing millions call for rejection of US Free Trade Agreement

As Community organisations representing millions of Australians we call on the Opposition, minor parties and independents not to pass the implementing legislation for the Australia US Free Trade Agreement in the Senate. The USFTA is not in Australia’s national interest because it:
• means higher medicine costs – the agreement gives US drug companies rights to seek reviews of decisions by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. Changes to patent law will delay the production of cheaper generic medicines. Public health experts believe the changes will weaken the price control of the PBS, leading to higher costs for the PBS and Australian consumers
• restricts Australian voices in new media by limiting Australian content rules for new forms of media, and allows the US government to challenge these rules as a barrier to trade. As new forms of media become dominant fewer and fewer Australian voices and stories will be heard
• "binds" or freezes state and local government regulation of essential services at existing levels, unless they are listed as exceptions. This limits the ability of future governments to regulate in many areas. Water, electricity and public transport have not been listed as exceptions. Regulation of aged care or other community services not specifically exempted may be challenged as barriers to US investment
• adopts US copyright law, meaning higher costs for libraries and schools and with devastating effects on small IT firms, especially the booming Australian local Open Source software industry
• sets up joint committees which could mean US pressure Australia to reduce quarantine standards. The American Farm Bureau Federation expects many gains for US exporters because of these committees
• Gives greater access for the US to Australian manufacturing markets than Australian access to US markets, and prevents government purchasing policies from giving preference to Australian firms. This could mean significant loss of Australian jobs in regional areas of high unemployment
• limits the power of the Foreign Investment Review Board to assess whether US investments are in the national interest by increasing the threshold from $50 to $800 million for all but a few exempt sectors,
• has a disputes process which allows the US government to challenge many Australian laws and policies before a trade tribunal based on trade law without considering impacts on health, culture or the public interest,
• has not been subject to an environmental impact assessment, leaving too many questions about the environmental consequences of the FTA unanswered, and
• fails to deliver the economic gains claimed by the government. Professors Ross Garnaut, Professor of Economics at ANU, Dr Philippa Dee from the Productivity Commission and ANU, and Dr Peter Brain from The National Institute of Economic and Industry Research found that claimed economic benefits were exaggerated, and are in fact limited by the restricted access to US agricultural and manufacturing markets. They predict minimal gains or slight losses.

For these reasons the USFTA is not in the national interest, the implementing legislation should not be supported in the Senate .

Signed by:
Sharan Burrow Megan Mitchell
President Director
Australian Council of Trade Unions Australian Council of Social Service

Don Henry Pia Smith
Executive Director President
Australian Conservation Foundation Linux Australia

Bill Whiley The Rev. Harry Herbert
National Secretary Executive Director
Australian Pensioners and Superannuants Federation Inc. UnitingCare NSW. ACT

Pieta Laut Bruce Hutton
Executive Director State Vice President
Public Health Association of Australia Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of NSW Inc.

Dr Tracy Schrader Bishop Patrick Power
National Vice President Australian Catholic Social Justice Council
Doctors Reform Society

Megan Elliot
Executive Director
Australian Writers’ Guild

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Women and Self Governance

By Professor Lowitja O’Donoghue

In 1986 Janine Haines became the first woman to lead an Australian political party when she was elected leader of the Australian Democrats. The Annual Janine Haines Lecture on 23 July 2004 in Adelaide was given by Professor Lowitja O'Donoghue.

Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue, AC CBE is a Yankunytjatjara woman from South Australia's far north. Her contribution to the advancement of Aboriginal people is great and widely recognised. Her positions have included inaugural Chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission; Deputy Chairperson of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Development Corporation; a member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, the Indigenous Land Corporation; a member of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation, the Indigenous Land Corporation, the National Australia Day Council and the Board of Trustees of the United Nations Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Populations (Geneva); and Director of Aboriginal Hostels Limited.  Dr O'Donoghue received the Companion of the Order of Australia in 1999 and was honoured as Australian of the Year in 1984. 

In her lecture, Professor O'Donoghue focuses on the difficulties women face in any sphere "to succeed in positions of leadership." 

"In fact, I was recently looking at The Australian newspaper’s ‘Fortieth Anniversary’ series, special edition. And in their ‘forty named people of influence’ during the last forty years – only four entries were women. And one of those was Pauline Hanson! (Another was Kylie Minogue!)

What can I say?  So, don’t buy the popular view that things have changed – and that we’ve moved beyond the need for strong action in terms of justice for women!   And I believe it is even more difficult for a woman in a leadership position if she challenges the status quo and the values that drive and protect it.  If she takes this role, she challenges both male power, and the systems that support and maintain it.  (By definition she will be regarded as mad or bad – and sometimes as both!)"  

O'Donoghue speaks of her sadness at the demise of ATSIC and questions:

"Why is there such an intense level of public suspicion directed at Indigenous organisations and initiatives?  From where is it generated? And what is it about?"  

O'Donoghue goes on to respond to the question, "what is involved in strong leadership and good governance for Indigenous people at this time in history?"

To view Professor O'Donoghue's lecture see: Women and Governance

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Questionnaire to Governments on the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (1995)

The forty-ninth session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will be held from 28 February to 11 March 2005 at UN Headquarters in New York. It is planned as an expanded session, encompassing: 1) A review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA/1995) and the outcome documents of the special session of the General Assembly (also known as Beijing+5) entitled "Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century"; and 2) Current challenges and forward looking strategies for the advancement and empowerment of women and girls.

In addition to the expanded CSW session, (also known as Beijing+10) women worldwide will be noting 30 years since the first UN world conference on women, the World Conference for International Women's Year (IWY), and the parallel NGO conference, the IWY Tribune, both held in Mexico City, 1975. These landmark meetings inaugurated both a UN Decade for Women (1975-1985) and a series of conferences and NGO Forums that brought women and development issues to the centre of the global development agenda. (Source: IWTC Women's GlobalNet)

In this issue, CLW features some background information about the Fourth World Conference, the follow-up process to the Conference and the current Questionnaire to Governments on the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action (1995).

To view: Follow up to the Fourth World Conference for Women

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2004 - the 20th Anniversary of the Federal Sex Discrimination Act 1984

Twenty years ago on 1 August 1984, the Sex Discrimination Act was passed. The Act has played a crucial role in promoting a greater acceptance of the need for equality between women and men.

The role of the Sex Discrimination Commissioner is to use the Act to:

• raise awareness on issues including sex discrimination, paid maternity leave and pay equity;
• run public education campaigns on issues such as sexual harassment; and
• contribute to landmark court cases that have furthered equality for women by, for instance, embedding anti-discrimination principles in the industrial and workplace relations system, advancing pay equity, extending understanding of discrimination against women on the basis of their family responsibilities and ensuring the rights of all women to access IVF and other forms of reproductive technology.

In 2000 Australia was ranked number one on the United Nations Development Programme Gender Development Index.

But if Australia is to remain at the forefront of gender issues and continue to set the global benchmark there remain important equality issues to address, such as:

• overcoming a significant and stagnant pay equity gap
• engaging men on work and families issues, and
• putting in place a universal system of paid maternity leave.
   

Some suggestions offered by the Commission for how your organisation can mark this day are:

• Inviting a prominent woman to address your organisation or local area e.g. A local female member of parliament or a leading local female figure

• organising a morning or afternoon tea, lunch, picnic or walk

• Making a video or compiling a book on the history of women in your organisation or local area

• Getting together with the women in your organisation or local area for a women's film night.

• Organising a photograph/essay competition around the theme of "Twenty years since the Sex Discrimination Act: How far we have come, where we have got to go?" or any women's issues

• Committing your organisation or local area to supporting a local or national or global women's issue

• Raising funds in support of this issue. You may host a movie night or organise a raffle.

  Source: humanrights.gov.au  

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A Tribute to Wendy Weeks

This is a special Tribute to Wendy Weeks by the Australian virtual Centre for Leadership for Women (CLW).  I interviewed Wendy Weeks for CLW's Glass Ceiling Program in 2002. As a Tribute to Wendy, below is a link to that interview as well as a brief bio in her own words. 
Weeks had a long involvement with feminist theory and practice, women-friendly social policy and women-specific and other community services. She taught social work at Mc Master University, Canada; at Phillip Institute of Technology (now RMIT University) and at The University of Melbourne. She was committed to sound organisational and industrial practices, and to social justice, including gender and racial justice.  Only three weeks ago, Wendy formerly retired from the University of Melbourne. 

A Tribute to Wendy Weeks

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1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005

The first woman to receive the prize, in 1905, was the Austrian Bertha von Suttner for her activities as honorary president of the Permanent International Peace Office. The eminent role of women, their strategies for sustainable peace work, their constant and courageous actions for their families and villages, their country and their culture, are not yet acknowledged as peace-promoting.

In March 2003, after intensive conceptual work, Dr. Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold, Member of the Swiss Parliament (National Council) and of the Council of Europe, with Maren Haartje of Swisspeace, started the project entitled, 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005.

"In the year 2005 the Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded to 1000 women for their untiring pursuit of peace. We want above all to profile such courageous women, to throw light on their lives and work by means of films, photos and other documentation.

The story behind the idea: As a member of the Council of Europe, I have been visiting refugee camps in various crisis and war areas for many years now – in Azerbaijan, Armenia, in Bosnia and Kosova, in Serbia, Georgia and Chechnya …

Everywhere I meet women who perform reconstruction and peace work in extremely dangerous surroundings. They manage the difficult task of obtaining food and medicine for those in need. They look for missing persons and struggle to acquire better living conditions for refugees. They give schooling to orphans in order to distract them from their war experiences and ghastly memories and to bring structure and courage into these children's daily lives. They unequivocally condemn torture, murder and abductions, and they document with clandestine photos the war parties' brutalities. They take to the streets and, against the will of the authorities, hold vigils of protest in public places. It is women who are victims of war. It is women who weep for the dead, they are the survivors who press for a return to peace. Courageous and resolute, and without regard for personal safety, they demand peace.

My contact with these women and the awareness that their work leaves scarcely a trace outside their sphere of activity preoccupied me incessantly. I realised that people from countries at peace must render visible the concrete work for peace done by women. Thus the idea 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005 gradually took form. The fact that since 1901 the Nobel Peace Prize for the recognition of peace efforts and courage in war situations has been awarded mainly to (states)men, but only 10 times to women, deepened my conviction that this situation must be remedied. The widespread enthusiastic reaction to this idea encouraged me to launch the project."

President of the Association 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005, Bern, mid-April, 2003

The coordinators have agreed that at least one woman from every country and area in the world should be nominated. For the selection of the other 775 candidates, population density as well as the insecurity and gender situation in specific areas of the world will be considered.

• 35% of the women nominated should be involved at the grass-roots level (clan, ethnic group, neighbourhood, village, town)
• 25% of the women should be involved at the sub-national level
• 20% of the women should be involved at the national level
• 10% should work at a regional (cross-border) level
• 10% international

The women of peace should also be involved in different fields of activity. The project team envisions at least four:

• Human rights and political change for justice (racism, identity, politics, democratisation, etc.)
• Basic needs, alleviating poverty, social and economic justice
• Gender-based and domestic violence and discrimination
• Wars, violent and armed conflicts (refugees, etc.)

The public nominating procedure closed at the end of May 2004. In August 04, the coordinators will have examined the nominations and, together with a regional advisory committee or national committees, and made a pre-selection. In October 2004, the project team (coordinators, board members, and administrators) will examine the recommended pre-selection. In February 2005, the Association 1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005, together with a team of international experts, will officially nominate the 1000 women in Oslo.

Of course it is not certain that these 1000 women will win the Nobel Peace Prize. But even if they do not, they and their achievements must not sink unnoticed into oblivion.

Source: www.1000peacewomen.org

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The Courage of Afghanistan's Malalai Joya

"At the Loya Jirga's (Grand Assembly) convention to debate Afghanistan's new constitution in December 2003, Malalai Joya, a 25-year old female social worker from the rural province of Farah, said what no-one up to now has dared say: that many of the Jirga's chairmen were criminals who had destroyed the country and instead of being given influential positions in the Jirga, they should be tried for their crimes in courts.

A furor ensued with many in the mujahideen-(holy warrior)-dominated Jirga shouting "death to Communists". Joya's microphone was cut-off and she was temporarily removed from the room 'for her own safety'.

It was an extraordinarily brave stand by Joya. Many Afghans share her sentiments yet most are too afraid to voice them in public. With death threats received, Joya herself is under UN protection for the duration of the Jirga.

The 'actions' she was referring to took place largley during the reign of the Jehadis (most religiously conservative mujahideen) from 1992-6. The Jehadis, notorious for throwing acid in the faces of women, slicing off their breasts and other atrocious acts, gained power during the 1980's when the U.S saw fit to fund, arm and train them in the fight against Soviet occupation. During their rule, they terrorized the civilian population with blanket rocket shellings, rape, torture and killing, to such a degree that when the Taliban emerged in 1996, they were initially welcomed.

After the fall of the Taliban these same Jehadi leaders, including Buhruddin Rabbani, Abdul Sayyaf, and members of the Northern Alliance, have re-emerged, with disastrous consequences for Afghans, especially women."

 (Znet.com, Los Angeles Times, Sydney Morning Herald, December 29, 2003 by Meena Nanji)

Below is an article that appeared in the Daily Telegraph in UK on 14 July 2004 about Malalai Joya and the continuing threats she faces for voicing her views.

One woman's words defy might of Afghan warlords 

By Hamida Ghafour UK Daily Telegraph  14 July 2004

The most powerful warlords in the country call her a communist and in Afghanistan that is enough to seal a death warrant.

But Malalai Joya, 25, who runs an orphanage and health clinic, refuses to give up her crusade to rid the country of what she calls "warlords and criminals" involved in drug trafficking, land seizures, rape, and looting of houses.

"Our government can't recognise that we have people with dark backgrounds," she said in Kabul where she has been in hiding after her home in the western province of Farah was ransacked by soldiers.

"These people should be taken to court. The destruction of this country can speak for itself. The walls, the houses, the children, the people can recognise their enemies."

Miss Joya has become feted as a heroine in a country where ordinary people live under the rule of the gun. She speaks at rallies, inspires debates on radio talk shows and even has a website dedicated to her called "Defend Malalai Joya!". Her fame has gained her audiences with President Hamid Karzai and his cabinet.

This week, armed with petitions and video testimony of ordinary Afghans documenting human rights abuses in her province, she and a delegation of 50 tribal elders managed to persuade Mr Karzai to dismiss the governor of Farah, a former Taliban commander. "I am so happy he is finally gone," she said.

Miss Joya became famous during the constitutional loya jirga last January when, as an elected delegate, she gave a speech in front of the gathering of tribal elders against the warlords. Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, an influential mujahideen leader, called her a communist and infidel.

The United Nations gave her four armed bodyguards because it was feared she would be killed. She has refused to keep quiet even though her clinic and orphanage have been attacked, and she receives daily death threats and warnings of suicide attacks against her family.

"I have seen too many sorrows and I have no fear in my soul anymore,"

she said. "My relatives told me to come to Kabul because they were scared for my life.

"I'm sleeping in a different house every night and I have cars with blacked out windows following me everywhere."

Mr Karzai is facing his own showdown with the nine most powerful commanders.

Between them, they control approximately 60,000 soldiers and he has said they present a greater threat to Afghanistan's security than the Taliban insurgents.

Yesterday Mr Karzai ordered the nine to report to Kabul and threatened to punish them if they refused to give up their private armies.

Among the commanders summoned to Kabul are Ismael Khan, who is also the governor of the western province of Herat, Mohammad Atta, the Armani-wearing northern leader, and the whisky-loving Abdul Rashid Dostum.

Commanders have been reluctant to give up their armies because of doubts about the long-term commitment of the outside world, said Hafiz Mansoor, editor of the newspaper Mujahideen's Message. "America could decide after their elections that they don't want to commit soldiers and resources. We are not going to get support forever. Then who would defend the country if the Taliban came back?" he asked.

In any case, Mr Karzai's threats are empty. His national army has only 10,000 soldiers and officers and the Americans are unwilling to back him for fear of sparking a civil war, said a senior United Nations official.

"They are not willing to rock the boat because they don't want Afghanistan in the news before the American elections," said the official. By the time of the Afghan presidential election on Oct 9, 60 per cent of the militia groups have to be disarmed as part of a

£97 million UN programme. So far, only 18 per cent have given up their guns.

The programme has become such a farce that as the UN tries to disarm military units, senior figures in the defence ministry who have their own armies order the commanders to re-recruit men and weapons.

"If the government is not tough on these people maybe they will lose their credibility," said Miss Joya.

"Those people will be in parliament and the country will revert to bloodshed. Maybe it will be me they kill, but there will be others whose voices will be louder than mine."

Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 2004

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World Media Leaders Launch Aids Initiative

“If there is anything we have learned in the two decades of this epidemic, it is that in the world of AIDS, silence is death”, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan told leaders of more than 20 of the world’s leading media organizations, during a round-table meeting at Headquarters launching the Global Media AIDS Initiative at the start of this year.

Participants included leaders from the BBC, China Central TV, Discovery Communications, Inc., MTV Networks International, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation, Viacom Inc., and Black Entertainment TV.

The Secretary-General told the gathering that experts now agreed HIV/AIDS was the worst epidemic humanity had ever faced.  Its impact had become a devastating obstacle to development.  Yet, among the public at large, there was still a profound lack of knowledge and awareness about the pandemic, especially among young people.  Leaders of the media had the power and the reach to disseminate the information people needed to protect themselves from the disease.

Media leaders could create an enabling environment where individuals were free to explore ways of keeping themselves safe and changing their behaviour as necessary, he said.  Media leaders could designate the fight against HIV/AIDS as a corporate priority and could dedicate airtime to public service messages.  Prominent news coverage of the epidemic could be provided to help ensure it was kept high on the national and global political agenda.

“Together, the UN family and the media can build an alliance with an ambitious agenda:  to inform, to educate, to entertain people as a means to giving them the knowledge and incentive they need to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS”, Annan said in conclusion.

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UN Experts Say Gender Equality Essential to Fighting Spread of AIDS in Asia

Asian-Pacific political leaders have a brief period to save millions of people from HIV infection, but among their biggest challenges are gender inequality, which weakens a woman's defences against an HIV-positive man, along with stigma, which discourages people from finding out their HIV status, United Nations experts said today.

"In South Asia women are more vulnerable both socially and economically. They have less opportunity to protect themselves," Dr. Nafis Sadik, UN Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, said during the satellite session she chaired at the 15th International AIDS Conference in Bangkok, Thailand.

According to a report from the Asia Pacific Leadership Forum on HIV/AIDS and Development, about 1 million people in the region were infected with HIV in 2003 alone, bringing the number living with the virus to more than 7 million.

Leaders need to break the silence encouraging stigma and discrimination and not only speak out but take effective action on sensitive issues, the report says.

"In a society where there are religious, social, cost and other constraints, it's even more vital to have political leadership," said Anand Panyarachun, former Prime Minister of Thailand and chairman of the Leadership Forum steering committee.

Though India's HIV prevalence is only between 0.4 per cent and 1.3 per cent, it has the largest number of people living with HIV outside South Africa - an estimated 5.1 million in 2003, the report said. Meanwhile serious epidemics have broken out in several territories and states.

Experts at the satellite session pointed out that low condom use in South Asia is a major hurdle in AIDS prevention, while indicators suggested a close link between the poor status of women in patriarchal societies and their vulnerability to HIV. Poverty, discrimination and violence against women and girls have been fuelling the epidemic.

"The needs of vulnerable groups, including women and young people, continue to be neglected throughout Asia," said Kathleen Cravero, Deputy Executive Director of the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). "Until women and girls have equal access to effective HIV prevention and treatment services, there is little hope to beat the epidemic."

Elsewhere in South Asia, warning signs of future HIV outbreaks from pervasive injecting drug use and sex work show that even low-prevalence countries could see epidemics surge suddenly, the experts said.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which is chairing the UNAIDS Committee of Co-Sponsoring Organizations, has pledged to spotlight the impact on the pandemic of injecting drug use, imprisonment, human trafficking and conflict.

"Drugs and crime are important, yet often neglected, factors in the evolution of the HIV/AIDS pandemic," said UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa, who is also attending the Bangkok conference.

Meanwhile, at UN Headquarters in New York, spokesman Stephane Dujarric told journalists that the Global Media AIDS Initiative, a collaborative group of the world's most powerful media launched last January by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, announced that it would begin new HIV-focused public education efforts in Russia, India, China, Indonesia and the United States.

He quoted UNAIDS Executive Director Dr. Peter Piot as saying, "The coming together of media organizations to harness their collective power to fight against AIDS is one of the most important partnerships forged to date."

UN 13 July 2004

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Adult Learners' Week around the world

Background

When governments met in Jomtien for the World Conference on Education for All in 1990, among the goals set were universal access to and completion of primary education, and reduction of the adult illiteracy rate to one half its 1990 level by 2000. Ten years later, governments met in Dakar and still 113 million children have no access to primary education and 880 million adults, the majority of them women, are illiterate.

It is against this background that International Adult Learners' Week takes place.

What is International Week?

The move to create a wider celebration of adult learning began with the American Association for the Advancement of Education (AAAE) in the late 1980s. The US week focused on a Congressional Breakfast for outstanding adult learners backed by an activities pack for AAAE members.

Adult Learners' Week commenced in the United Kingdom in 1992. Australia, along with South Africa and Jamaica, picked up on the success of Adult Learners' Week and the first Australian ALW was organised in 1995 to promote and encourage lifelong learning

When UNESCO's General Conference in November 1999 approved the International Adult Learners' Week, a larger dimension came into being. The aim is to bridge the activities during the national adult learners' weeks, to learn from the experiences of other countries, to share the celebration with people in other contexts and to amplify the cooperation between agencies active in the promotion of adult learning at international level.

Since then, organisers in more than 40 countries (see below) have organised or are preparing learning festivals. These not only raise awareness of the need to create more opportunities for adults to learn, but celebrate the efforts and achievements of the thousands who find the courage to 'take that first step back'.

The week in Australia was coordinated from the beginning by the Australian Association of Adult and Community Education (AAACE), which changed its name in November 1998 to Adult Learning Australia.

The breadth of supporting organisations has grown over this time and Adult Learners' Week now includes events and activities from the community adult education, health, aged care, museums and environmental sectors.

This year's Adult Learners' Week runs from 1 - 8 September with the theme Sharing between the generations.

For more information on Adult Learners' Week and how you and your organisation can participate, see: http://www.adultlearnersweek.org/index.html 

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