The success of the Global Learners’ Network’s presentation at the Confintea VI conference held in Belem, Brazil, during December 2009 has resulted in the Network being invited to become a member of the Confintea Advisory Group.  The Advisory Groupwill be composed of two categories of members: UNESCO Member States (in particular the hosts of the CONFINTEA VI regional preparatory conferences) and international key stakeholder organisations (including civil society organisations and learners’ associations).  It’s a great honour for the learners network to be invited to send a representative and we’ve decided that our first year’s representative should be Winifred Hignell and the rest of the network will work with Winifred to make sure that we have learner representation at a local, national and international levels. Although Winifred comes from England she’ll be carrying the votes of learners from around the world.  We know there’s a lot of work to be done if we are to move from “rhetoric to action” and Winifred might be just one voice at the first meeting but she represents hundreds of thousands of voices backed by some very large national and world wide organisations and more importantly she carries with her the hopes and dreams of adult learners from across the world that now is the time to make a difference.