On 10-11 April, SOLIDAR Foundation facilitated two sessions during the Global Education Network (GEN) Annual Meeting 2025 to stimulate discussions on active citizenship, promote Global Citizenship Education (GCE) in Europe and disseminate SOLIDAR’s ongoing work on the topic.  

SOLIDAR Foundation’s sessions, led by Alexandra Matthys, Education & Lifelong Learning Officer, explored advocacy strategies for GCE, emphasizing the value of transnational cooperation and the transformative impact of Non-formal and Informal Learning (NIFL). Participants underscored that GCE equips all citizens with essential competences, including those needed for employment, and stressed the crucial role of NIFL in delivering these competences. They also called for a more critical, decolonising approach to GCE, urging that such perspectives guide efforts at both the EU and international levels. 

The outcome of discussions will feed into SOLIDAR Foundation’s Roadmap for Promoting Global Citizenship Education and Inclusion in Europe which will be launched in the fall and collect all the past learnings and current insights of the SOLIDAR network on the topic of Global Citizenship Education. 

The meeting took place in the frame of the GEN Annnual Meeting which brought together around 42 representatives of civil society organisations and public authorities from 33 countries in Zagreb, Croatia, and was organised by the North-South Centre of the Council of Europe in cooperation with the Centre for Peace Studies and SOLIDAR Foundation. 

A big thanks to all participants, the North-South Centre and SOLIDAR Member Centre for Peace Studies for making this possible!