This book is the first comprehensive account of developments in open and distance non-formal
education in developing countries for over more than 20 years. It includes many instructive and
inspiring examples of how international agencies such as UNESCO FAO WHO UNICEF USAID and
the Commonwealth of Learning and national providers are using radio TV online and mobile
learning telecentres and other means to achieve the Education for All Millennium Development
and Sustainable Development Goals. It describes the educational needs of the world's most
disadvantaged vulnerable and least formally educated children youth and adult populations
including the disabled refugees and prisoners. It also reports on the successes outcomes
constraints and shortcomings of using open and distance methods and technology to deliver
literacy and numeracy programmes equivalency 'second chance' or alternative schooling life
skills and rural community development programmes and income generation and vocational training
outside the framework of the formal education system. It concludes with suggestions for the
extension and improvement of such lifelong learning. Designed to encourage further research and
development in these capacity-building practices outside the established formal system this is
a must-read for all policy-makers managers educators students and researchers interested in
non-formal education for individuals families and communities in the developing world.
