By 1914, 84.4 % of the world's terrestrial area had been colonized by the Europeans. With colonization there came a new paradigm of development. Cecil Rhodes expressed this paradigm eloquently: "We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the cheap slave labour that is available from the natives of the colonies. The colonies would also provide a dumping ground for the Europeans". According to many voices the paradigm of development has not changed. It emerges in new forms, in the current pursuit of neo-liberal globalization. According to François Partant, the French banker-turned-critic of development; "the developed nations have discovered for themselves a new mission-to help the Third World countries advance along the same road to development which is nothing more than the road on which the West had guided the rest of humanity for several centuries."

The protests of Seattle in 1999, and in Washington DC, Nice, Genova, Gothenburg and other places in the beginning of the Millennium, clearly contributed to a better awareness that the terms under which the current globalization process takes place have to be changed. The gap between the poor and the rich has widened not only between the industrialized countries and the Third World Nations, but the inequalities have widened also within the poor, -as well as within the wealthy nations as measured by the Gini-coefficient.

Given the growing concern over a "darwinistic" globalization process and the controversy concerning 'development' and its impacts, "La Ligne d'Horizon ", an association of the friends of François Partant, proposed to UNESCO's Management of Social Transformations (MOST) Programme to co-organize a symposium on 'Post-development', to emphasize the alternatives which constitute a practical expression of a refusal to accept the unfettered supremacy of the capitalist economy and the development thinking, and a challenge to the thinking that overwhelmingly dominates the current public discourse at the present time. Given UNESCO's intellectual and ethical mandate, it is in general terms appropriate for the Organization to host conferences which gives the opportunity for challenging intellectual debates.

The Symposium gathered about 60 speakers and close to 1000 participants.

The participants recognized that it was a quite 'militant' meeting, and the focus was in many ways rather to talk about negative aspects and impacts of globalization and development than to formulate alternatives. Several speakers stressed that 'development' is a Western concept, - aiming at achieving the values of the North. It was stated that there can not be a development-model based on injustice. We live in a world where "the driving force is competition, and there is no room for compassion, -a better world has to be created". "The world has enough for everybody's needs, not for everybody's greed". There has to be a consensus on how to tackle the weaknesses of the market, -"we have to get off the train and chose a train which is going in another direction". Some speakers stressed the need to give importance to the promotion and protection of human rights and the empowerment of women in order to create a world in which justice will prevail.

It was also stated that most policy-makers are disconnected from the real problems of the masses of the world. A speaker argued that we know what to do, but do not discuss it as it is questioning Western values. The poor should also be given the means to be self-sufficient. The poor today are "the object of conversation, not the subject".

It was underlined that at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, several speakers had expressed a renewed belief in 'development'. A former Minister of culture of Mali stressed that in Africa the society is built on the notion of 'development', and that her participation in this symposium advocating the need to 'undo' development was perceived negatively. A speaker drew the attention to that in developing countries 'development' is something close to 'mythic', and that Western wealth and material goods is something it is natural that the poor are also dreaming of.

Some participants stated that they found that most of the participants were too utopians in their thinking. It was argued that we can not go back to nature, and that they doubted that most people in the developed countries would be willing to give up their standard of living which would be the result of a "ungrowth" in GNP as many participants were strongly advocating. It was stated by some that in order to make a change they would need to formulate what they are dreaming of, and not only what they are against.

A minority expressed an understanding of that if social change is to take place, the activists need to be in dialogue with the policy-makers, -and to get the policy-makers on their side. In order to achieve this, the decision-makers need to be transmitted the results of the symposium and its' follow-up.

In the discussions on the follow-up to the colloque the following points were the most relevant;

• A web-site on 'post-development' should be created.
• There were discussions on the formulation of a "Post-development" Charter.
• It was stated that an international network on 'post-development' needs to find a powerful theory and a language which can counter-act the development theory and the development language which is used by social scientists.

A link to policy-makers was assured, as several delegates from UNESCO's Member States attended the conference. The results will also be widely disseminated as 25 journalists were accredited, representing a wide range of various newspapers and magazines. A publication, summarizing all the presentations made during the plenary sessions and the workshops, is under the preparation (More that 400 individuals have already submitted written requests that they would like to buy the forthcoming publication. In addition there are requests from Delegates from Member States, Ministries of Social Affairs etc, requesting the proceedings from the meeting). We are planning a MOST Policy paper on 'Post-Development'.

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