Lifelong learning for facilitating democratic participation in Africa

Lifelong learning has come to be internationally recognized as a framework in the development of sustainable education. However, in spite of rhetoric and its endorsement in some nations’ policy documents, lifelong learning is not operationalized and Africa continues to be plagued by social maladies such as HIV/AIDS, capacity poverty, low quality education, global marginalization and ineffective governance. The article argues that post‐colonial Africa transited from concern with service delivery, went through structural adjustment policies to focusing on African renaissance. It indicates that some countries have embraced lifelong learning as policy framework but have not made sufficient efforts to translate that in their teaching and learning. It contents that lifelong learning in Africa can only be effective if African communities are encouraged to make concerted efforts to embrace principles such as deliberative democracy, multiculturalism, decentralization of decision‐making and helping to redirect the agenda of civil society as a way to use lifelong learning to enhance public participation in Africa.