It gives me great pleasure to be at the 26th AAOU Conference on ‘Expanding the Frontiers of Knowledge through ODL in changing societies’. This theme finds resonance in the Commonwealth of Learning’s (COL) own mission of promoting ‘learning for development’. Over the years, COL has harnessed the potential of Open and Distance Learning or ODL not just to support formal education but also non-formal learning in skills development, agriculture and health.