507 Lifelong Learning in the Least Developed Countries: towards an Alternative Model Kapil Dev Regmi University of British Columbia Abstract: This paper problematizes the terms ‘developing countries’, ‘third world’ and ‘global south’ and argues in favour of ‘the Least Developed Countries (LDCs)’ as a category to explore the relevance of lifelong learning for poor nations. It argues that foreign assistance is a hindrance to enable the people of LDC to solve their problems and explores how humanistic approach to lifelong learning – that goes against the idea of knowledge based economy – could direct us towards the development of a pro-poor model of lifelong for solving the problems of those impoverished nations. The Least Developed Countries The world now is not the same as it was in 1952 when Alfred Sauvy categorised the nations into: the first, the second and the third world (McMichael, 2012). Similarly, the binary category of ‘developed’ and ‘developing or underdeveloped’ countries has also been problematic because some developing countries like China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Russia have been significantly influencing the world economy. The division of the global North and the global South is also problematic because Australia and New Zealand are rich even though they are located to the South of the equator. No classification is free from limitations; nonetheless, the categorisation made by the United Nations – the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) – seems to be more useful for exploring the issues and problems of the poorest people of the world. Moreover, this category comes out of some specific criteria: Gross National Income (GNI), Human Assets Index (HAI), and Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI). Currently there are 48 nations (33 in Africa, 14 in Asia, and 1 in America) in this category. The LDCs have diverse range of problems and challenges, however, because of their concentration in two parts of the globe (Africa and Asia) and their similar colonisation and decolonisation history, they have multiple problems such as: weak productivity, poverty, unemployment, gender discrimination, internal conflict, and illiteracy. A number of attempts have been made from the international community, especially Western donor agencies – such as the World Bank (WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organisations (WTO) – to help LDCs develop. However, such attempts have not solved those problems in a sustainable manner. I argue that in the name of international assistance the people of LDCs are often undermined. Through these approaches, they have been made the objects of external help thus devaluing the human, physical and other natural and non- natural resources they currently have and need more of. The capacity of the people of those countries has been continuously misrecognized and their traditional wisdom and epistemology have been colonised through processes that seek to make them more modernised in the fashion of donor countries. Instead of encouraging them to use their brawn and brain, the donor agencies are routinely telling them that ‘without external help, development of LDC is impossible’. Such argument echoes the sad history of European colonisation. Thus, international assistance – to a great extent – continues the colonising process that has brought very negative consequences for