​On 17-18 May 2018, the Office of the Non-Formal and Informal Education (ONIE), Ministry of Education, Thailand organised the Consultation Forum: The Implementation of Policy and Strategies for Building the Learning Cities into Practice at the Royal City Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. 

On 23-24 April 2018, UNESCO Bangkok with the support of Japan-funds-in-trust organised the 2018 Expert Meeting on Innovating Adult and Community Learning in Asia and the Pacific. The meeting aimed to obtain inputs for the production of a series of UNESCO Bangkok learning videos that will serve to enhance capacity of educators, practitioners of adult learning and CLC management within the scope of the project "Development of Online Learning Contents for Community Learning Centres."

The meeting was held in UNESCO Bangkok office. It gathered 30  experts, and educators in the field of lifelong learning from ten countries in the regionand international organisations (ASPBAE, DVV International, SEAMEO, SEAMEO CELLL, and UNESCO offices). Ten key areas of adult learning and community learning centres were identified and discussed thoroughly. An array of inputs were made from examination of the topics from different perspectives to finally produce lists of subject matters to be included in the video contents. 

The video series when available will be disseminated in various ways to bring about positive direct impacts in capacity development of the region’s adult learning and community learning practitioners and indirectly benefit learners.

SEAMEO CELLL representative participated in the event and facilitated several discussion sessions. The Centre will consider using the outcome of the meeting in its future workshops as well as recommending it at other workshops and policy meetings in Vietnam for the development of CLCs towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

On 19-20 April 2018, the Policy Forum on Building Lifelong Learning Models was organised in Hanoi City, Vietnam by the Ministry of Education and Training and Hanoi Open University with the participation of 130 participants from education sector and relevant stakeholders.
The Forum listened to informative presentations focusing on the development of a learning society in Vietnam as well as the roles of training institutions on the path towards building learning cities. The forum was also honoured to receive practical experiences from other countries shared by the respective keynote speakers from Cambodia, Korea, the Philippines and Thailand. The presentations captured special attention from the audience and stimulated lively discussions on how to build learning cities and adapt good lifelong learning practices to Vietnam’s current political, social and economic background. (The speakers from Korea and the Philippines responded to the audience’s enquiries through the online video conference platform hosted by Hanoi Open University.)
Ms Vu Lan Chi, SEAMEO CELLL representative introduced to the forum the regional project Towards a lifelong learning agenda in Southeast Asian countries, implemented by SEAMEO CELLL in partnership with UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) as a supportive undertaking to building learning cities. One of its major output: the SEA Lifelong learning online portal, which includes the E-resource database featuring documents on lifelong learning in the region, is expected to facilitate the process of building models of learning society as the foundation for building learning cities in Vietnam.
The forum proposed recommendations on the formulation of policies and plans for the development of learning cities and learning units in Vietnam. Vietnam policy forum was one in a chain of policy forums in Southeast Asian countries conducted within the framework of the said regional project. Up to this date, four policy forums were successfully conducted in Lao PDR (August 2017), Cambodia (November 2017), Indonesia (December 2017) and Vietnam (April 2018).