This report explores the challenges to education and training systems that the knowledge economy presents. It outlines policy options for addressing these challenges and developing viable systems of lifelong learning in developing countries and countries with transition economies. It addresses four questions: 1) What does a national education and training system, including its formal and nonformal components, need to do to support knowledge based economic growth? 2) How can developing countries and countries with transition economies promote lifelong learning, and what challenges do they face in doing so? 3) Given limited resources, what type of governance framework promotes lifelong learning for people in general and disadvantaged groups in particular? 4) How can financing of lifelong learning be inclusive, affordable, and sustainable? The report provides a conceptual framework for education-related lending activities reflecting the latest knowledge and successful practices of planning and implementing education for lifelong learning. It encourages countries to look beyond traditional approaches to education and training and to engage in a policy dialogue on the pedagogical and economic consequences of lifelong learning.