Facilitator's Guide for Adult and Non-formal Education

The Guide book was developed and distributed by UNESCO Beirut to present a holistic resource pack for Non formal educators in the Arab States. UNESCO Beirut Regional Bureau for Education in the Arab States seeks to expand NFE programming in the Arab region by providing equitable access to information enabling people to fully participate in their communities. Within this framework, “The Facilitator’s Guide for Adult and Non-Formal Education” was initiated, developed and implemented by UNESCO Beirut through a participatory process founded in a meeting of NFE experts and practitioners from the Arab region in Syria in 2007. In addition to the regional experts, the meeting included a group of NFE professional from Africa, Asia, and UNESCO Headquarters in Paris. Accordingly, participants benefited from previous experiences and projects developed and implemented in many countries across Asia and Africa. Within this context, the group discussed the importance of such a tool, designed its skeleton, and provided recommendations for its development. Then, in late 2007, a smaller team of adult and NFE experts from Lebanon, Sudan, Egypt and Morocco were selected to work on the development of this guide which was then piloted in Syria and Lebanon and amended through a process of engagement with the field. “The Facilitator’s Guide for Adult and Non-Formal Education” is considered to present a holistic regional resource pack for NFE facilitators in the Arab region. It is designed to equip facilitators with basic knowledge and skills related to delivering literacy and non-formal education to adult learners, using the constructive modality in order to engage the facilitator in the learning process. The guide is designed to be used in a flexible manner and we encourage its users to adapt it according to their specific local needs and culture. When at all possible, facilitators are encouraged to add narratives that reflect the local experiences of the learners in their program.