Rethinking literacy from a lifelong learning perspective in the context of the Sustainable Development Goals and the International Conference on Adult Education.

Despite general agreement that a 21st-century learning society must also be a literate society, there is still a long way to go to achieve a broad consensus on how to achieve this within an explicit lifelong learning vision. The Seventh International Conference on Adult Education (CONFINTEA VII - June 2022) is an excellent opportunity to rethink literacy from a lifelong learning perspective in order to fully tap its transformative potential in the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). By using a theoretical framework of , this article analyses the main challenges associated with applying the lifelong learning principle to literacy, in particular in the context of aligning CONFINTEA's review and improvement of adult learning and education (ALE) strategies with SDG processes.