ASPBAE - Adult Education and Lifelong Learning in the Asia South Pacific

23/06/2026

📣 Happening soon!

In celebration of Pride Month, ASPBAE, E-Net Philippines, and The LGBT Centre (Mongolia) invite you to join our collaborative online learning event:

🌈 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐝𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐧 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫-𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
📅 25 June 2026
🕐 13:00–14:00 PM (Philippine Standard Time)
Registration link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/x47uGS9FS5-OkOmLAgE5RA #/registration

Whether you're an educator, youth leader, advocate, or ally, your voice matters. Stand with us in building education systems where everyone can learn, thrive, and belong.

Together, let's explore LGBTQIA+ issues and learn from inspiring initiatives advancing gender-transformative education and advocating for greater equality and inclusion.

18/06/2026

ASPBAE’s Advocacy and Youth Engagement Officer Lae Santiago was among the speakers at Tzu Chi Foundation’s International Youth Leadership Program session with the theme, “𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲-𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐟𝐨𝐫 #𝐒𝐃𝐆𝟒” on 16 May 2026.

The dialogue brought together lived experiences, insights, and youth perspectives, exploring how education can be made more inclusive, relevant, and impactful. It aimed to highlight real-world best practices that have demonstrated meaningful impact, explore key barriers and gaps preventing inclusive and quality education for all, and foster cross-sector dialogue on practical actions and partnerships to advance SDG 4.

Offering the regional context, Lae shared updates on the Asia Pacific progress towards SDG 4, highlighting the need to prioritize equity and inclusion in and through education above all and the role of youth and civil society in advocating for the right to education. She also shared ASPBAE’s youth constituency building efforts, including the Youth-Led Action Research (YAR) developed with its members over the years.

03/06/2026

💡 𝗝𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝗔𝗦𝗣𝗕𝗔𝗘’𝘀 𝗩𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗘𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴:
“𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗘𝗾𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗘𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻”

📅 June 9, 2026 (Tuesday)
⏰ 1:00–4:00 PM (Manila Time)

Join education advocates from across the region to explore the challenges and opportunities in education financing.
Together, let’s strengthen the collective advocacy to engage governments and development partners in closing funding gaps and addressing inequalities in access to good quality education.

🔗 Register now through this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/ZDMbK5LtRcyyBd7A22lBow

22/05/2026

"𝑆𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑓 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒. 𝑊𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛!"
- Trần Minh Tường, Hiệp Hội Vì Giáo Dục Cho Mọi Người Việt Nam - VAEFA Youth Representative and Global Partnership for Education Youth Leader

Vietnam has made efforts to make its educational system more inclusive and equitable. However, challenges remain in providing quality education to disadvantaged groups of learners, specifically learners with disabilities and ethnic minority learners.

For , VAEFA recommends the following to guarantee inclusive, equitable, and quality education systems for all youth:
🎯Ensure the allocation of at least 20% of the State budget (or 6% of GDP) for education, with all the provinces meeting their share of at least 20% of their local budgets for education.
🌱Improve the budget allocation for education to prioritize groups that are identified as “left behind,” including learners with disabilities, ethnic minority learners, and migrant learners.
⚖️Good models of effective and quality education for learners with disabilities in general, deaf learners, blind learners, and deaf-blind learners should be financially supported and replicated to ensure the right to education of these most marginalized groups.

21/05/2026

An artwork by Pham Phuong Linh – a female deaf high school student at the National College for Education, Vietnam – conveys a powerful message:

Financial barriers, combined with limited access to sign language resources, make it harder for deaf students in Vietnam—especially those in remote and low-income areas—to fully engage in learning.

This highlights the urgent need for inclusive financing for education! With proper financial support for disability-inclusive education and lifelong learning opportunities, reinforced by community-led initiatives, learners with disabilities, including deaf learners, can unlock their full potential and pursue their dreams.

Hiệp Hội Vì Giáo Dục Cho Mọi Người Việt Nam - VAEFA
United Nations Human Rights

15/05/2026

At Women Deliver 2026, the Feminist Network for Gender Transformative Education convened a critical session: "How can education be used to deliver SDG 5?"

Bringing together over 200 organisations — including FAWE Africa, Plan International, UNICEF, UNGEI, ASPBAE, the Asfari Institute, and Transform Education — the session centred a core belief: education systems must actively transform gender norms, not just deliver gender-neutral content.

Click the link below to read the full write-up by UN Girls' Education Initiative

At Women Deliver 2026, the Feminist Network for Gender Transformative Education convened a critical session: "How can education be used to deliver SDG 5?" Bringing together over 200 organisations — including FAWE Africa, Plan International, UNICEF, UNGEI, ASPBAE, the Asfari Institute, and Transfor...

08/05/2026

Education financing is still a major concern in Timor-Leste. For , Civil Society Education Partnership-CSEP Timor-Leste and the Marginalized Youth Forum (MYF) strongly recommend:

🎯Allocating sufficient state budget to the education sector by reaching the internationally agreed benchmark of 15-20% of public expenditure.
📈Investing in public secondary schools, technical vocational schools, community learning centres, and national universities, ensuring principles of equity, inclusion, and quality in education.

🧑🏽‍🏫Investing in teacher capacity-building training on leadership, pedagogy, digital literacy and language to deliver quality education and services.

⚖️Preventing corruption and obstructive political interventions in the leadership decision-making processes for improved education management

06/05/2026

While progress has been made in education, particularly primary education enrollments, hidden costs remain, burdening households and hindering access to education. These costs include uniforms, transportation, extra classes, and informal payments, and can be a significant barrier to school attendance and completion.

For , NEP Cambodia - ភាពជាដៃគូអប់រំនៃអង្គការក្រៅរដ្ឋាភិបាល and its Education Champion Youths call for:
📈Significantly increasing the budget allocated to education, prioritizing investment in infrastructure development, teacher training, and resources for disadvantaged learners. This increased investment should be accompanied by measures to ensure that resources are used effectively and efficiently.

🎯 Prioritizing equitable resource allocation, ensuring that resources are allocated equitably to address disparities between regions and schools, with a particular focus on disadvantaged areas and marginalized groups, including youth. This requires a needs-based approach to resource allocation, taking into account the specific challenges faced by different communities and schools.

04/05/2026

04/05/2026

Nepal has committed to investing 15-20% of its annual budget to public education aligned with international financing benchmarks as set in the 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟑𝟎 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐀𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧.

This commitment has been reaffirmed by the state in national school sector plans and at the international level, through the Nepal government’s pledge for domestic financing in the Global Partnership for Education’s (GPE) financing campaign. Despite this commitment, much more needs to be done.

For , NCE Nepal calls on the government to:
🎯Allocate at least 20% of the national budget to education and SDG 4 agenda, prioritizing youth, women and girls, persons with disabilities, and other marginalized groups.
🔎Implement policies that enable progressive taxation measures and regulate growing corruption.
🤝Formalize CSOs’ role in SDG 4 monitoring through parliamentary committees and budget oversight.