A/71/358 community development. 8 Available experience on communities building infrastructure for basic education can be scaled up to lifelong learning processes at the local and regional levels. So-called “learning cities” can improve the lifelong education system so as to encourage vocational colleges, community colleges and open universities to play a greater role in development by providing lifelong learning opportunities. 16 Wider dimension can be given to this by developing “learning cities, towns and villages”. 8 50. Besides the role of communities, the Special Rapporteur is of the view that an important role devolves upon the intellectual community for promoting reflections, research and studies on lifelong learning. The Faculty of Educational Sciences at the Université du Québec à Montréal, as well as the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche/développement sur l’éducation permanente, furnish an example in this respect. 17 The intellectual community, as well as civil society organizations, 18 can raise public debate on key issues for promoting lifelong learning. B. Lifelong learning and corporate responsibility 51. The Special Rapporteur emphasizes the role and responsibility that devolves upon the corporate sector in lifelong learning, especially in the process of realizing the right to training and skills development. Employers have the main responsibility to provide for developing the competences of their workforce and can take on wider corporate social responsibilities, for example when they open up their training opportunities and resources to a wider public. They have a vital role in providing work experience opportunities. 12 Employers’ responsibility for education, training and lifelong learning for workers in small and medium-sized enterprises, in the informal economy, in the rural sector and in self-employment deserves special consideration. 52. In this respect, the Special Rapporteur commends the position taken by ILO with regard to corporate social responsibility and the call upon multinational enterprises “to provide training for all levels of their employees in home and host countries, to meet the needs of the enterprises and contribute to the development of the country”.12 C. Lifelong learning and its interface with other human rights 53. Lifelong learning has developed not only from a right to education perspective; its development manifests a broader human rights -based approach, linking lifelong learning to other human rights. UNESCO recognizes that “in the framework of lifelong learning, … literacy and adult learning and education contribute to the realization of the right to education that enables adults to exercise other economic, political, social and cultural rights”. 8 The aim of adult learning and education is to empower people in that perspective. __________________ 16 17 18 12/26 UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, report of the second International Conference on Learning Cities, Mexico City, 28-30 September 2015. See www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1oDYFKrfP8 and www.youtube.com/watch?v=76rT9ceNgKc on leaning throughout life and multiple ways to learning. See also www.youtube.com/watch?v= jzA9nCQCWjQ. See the report of the fourth World Forum on Lifelong Learning, Paris, 5 and 6 February 2015. 16-14910