Adult learning is now widely seen as a basic human right (the right to learn) and lifelong learning is similarly recognised. Adult learning within a lifelong learning concept has an agenda far wider than just employability skills. Yet educational inequalities between and within nations remain stark, as does the gap between rhetoric and practice in terms of policies and structures, legislation and finances for adult education. Renewed commitment and effective action in line with lifelong learning policies are required from all parties, to achieve the progress urgently needed across formal, non-formal and informal dimensions of adult learning. [Abstract presented in English, Spanish, and French.]