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We have often observed that
the world has become smaller with the development of rapid communication and transportation.
In fact, however, the world has become larger as millions of people left out of the
mainstream of civilization for centuries have crowded their way into modern society.
Martin
Luther King Jr, American religious leader and civil rights activist (1929-1968)
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It’s up to the ordinary citizens
to organize on a global scale, and change from being powerless to taking a stand. |
First, civil society acted as
an opposition force, then it brought a critical voice into major world forums. Now
the time has come to offer alternatives
 It all starts with a sense of powerlessness, springing from
a paradox that can be formulated in many different ways but which boils down to a
simple truth: humanity will have to make some pretty fundamental changes if it wants
to survive. We clearly cannot rely on the main political and economic players–imprisoned
in their agendas, hampered by short-sightedness and practical constraints–to take
up the challenge. Instead, it’s up to the ordinary citizens to organize on a global
scale, and change from being powerless to taking a stand, joining the debate and
drafting a different way forward.
The Charles Léopold Mayer1 Foundation for Human Progress was set up in 1982 in Geneva
with the aim of linking activism in the world to study of the future. At the time,
our societies, though richer and wiser than ever before, seemed singularly unable
to satisfy the hopes and most basic needs of their members. We had to weave a closer
relationship between thought and action, between advances in knowledge and possibilities
for human progress.
The foundation started out by supporting endeavours that brought these elements together–a
novelty at the time–but these initiatives still remained isolated “projects.” For
example, one project in Brazil involved assistance in building a network across 10
regions to gather information on traditional branches of knowledge and contrast the
findings with modern science. In Tanzania, a project aimed to improve agricultural
training by making it more attuned to small farmers’ needs.
While involved in these projects, we made two discoveries. Firstly, we found that
solutions to problems must be made on the basis of each particular social context,
though the problems themselves are broadly the same. A common denominator of issues
cropped up in all the projects, no matter where they were taking place. But these
shared characteristics were often hidden by the sheer complexity of local circumstances,
rigid mindsets, institutional factors and different schools of knowledge.
This common denominator became the very basis of our programmes, and explains the
importance we have attached to establishing networks. Equipping some of our partners
with Internet, a potentially formidable tool for democratic progress, has thus become
one of the foundation’s priorities.
Our second discovery was that the most useful knowledge for future action comes from
practice, namely from one’s own experience and that of others — experience that must
be identified and recorded so others can learn from it. Hence the need to store information
and circulate it by creating a tool for communication that can become a type of “collective
intelligence.” Since 1986, the foundation has gradually built up an international
database for sharing experience, establishing first of all norms for organizing and
distributing the information. Today, this corpus of shared experience covers a wide
area, from the geopolitics of drugs and social exclusion in Asia to the management
of difficult neighbourhoods in northern France and innovative educational methods
in Brazil. Some 8,000 contributions from citizens and local, regional and national
institutions, research centres and NGOs are gathered in the data-
base, while the Association of Chinese Mayors has expressed interest in adopting
it for future use.
By enabling some of our network’s members to become more knowledgeable than recognized
experts in the field, these tools are among the key elements that will help take
“civil society” into its third historical phase. A first period of protest was followed
by participation in major world forums, to which we brought a critical voice. Now
we are gearing up for a new era of initiative by connecting the alternative strategies
and visions that people around the world are searching for, weighing up and inventing.
All these alternatives are based on the simple premise: think locally, act globally.
This new unity, built over time and striving to realize a common goal through respect
for the particularities of every place, is the essence of the Alliance for a Responsible
and United World. Set up in 1993, it has partners in 115 countries, and made its
most recent project a bid to “encourage the definition and practical application
of a form of ‘world governance’ that meets the challenges of the 21st century.”
1. Charles Léopold Mayer (1881-1971) was
a philosopher, chemist, philanthropist and long-term investor. The foundation’s budget
is exclusively financed by revenue from his wealth, to the tune of approximately
$8 million a year.
The Foundation: http://www.fph.ch
The Alliance for a Responsible and United World: http://www.echo.org
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