A/71/358 95. A cost-sharing approach makes good sense under the principle that t hose who benefit should also pay. Learners will be motivated to make better choices when they are required to contribute to the cost of their education and training. 48 Technical and vocational education and training programmes that provide learners with the skills needed by industry and for gainful employment can be so devised as to allow learners to repay their education and training costs. D. Technical and financial assistance for developing countries and international cooperation 96. Developing countries, especially the least developed countries, cannot meet the changing needs of learners in terms of knowledge, skills and competencies. Providing citizens with possibilities for engaging in lifelong learning is a challenging task. International cooperation for lifelong learning is thus critically important. The Special Rapporteur commends the concern expressed in this regard in the normative framework of ILO: “increase technical and financial assistance for developing countries and promote, at the level of the international financial institutions and funding agencies, coherent policies and programmes which place education, training and lifelong learning at the centre of development policies ”. 12 XII. Conclusions and recommendations 97. The concept of education and learning as a continuum, no longer limited by age, is now globally recognized. As the Special Rapporteur has highlighted in the present report, education and learning are perceived as a continuing process, along with training as its valuable component. Those conceptual developments have led to the emergence of the right to learning, integrally linked with the right to education and training. The normative bases of adult or continuing education laid down in international human rights conventions have been expanded by instruments elaborated by UNESCO and ILO to endow lifelong education, learning and training with a legal framework. That evolution has also been followed in some countries, which have adopted education laws, policies and strategies on lifelong learning. 98. However, many countries still lag behind that evolution in embracing the concept of lifelong learning. They are not adequately equipped with a national legal framework or the policies and strategies necessary to direct their education systems towards lifelong learning. 99. It is incumbent upon Governments to advance in that direction, pursuant to the political commitments made in the Education 2030 agenda, as highlighted in the present report. This is imperative, given the cru cial importance of the knowledge, competencies and skills needed by learners in the twenty-first century. Individuals everywhere should have possibilities for engaging in lifelong learning and for participating fully in their community, workplace and wider society. __________________ 48 16-14910 World Bank, Lifelong Learning in the Global Knowledge Economy: Challenges for Developing Countries (Washington, D.C., 2003), p. 79. Available from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/ INTLL/Resources/Lifelong-Learning-in-the-Global-Knowledge-Economy/lifelonglearning_GKE.pdf. 23/26