UNESCO
at the World Social Forum 2002
After
the demonstrations in Seattle, Prague, Nice and Genoa, and
above all following the meeting of the First World Social
Forum in January 2001, we are expecting a large number of
people at Porto Alegre from 31 January
to 5 February 2002 for the second World Social Forum (WSF
II). But we shall not be marching in the streets
in Porto Alegre; we shall be discussing possible alternatives
for a world that is more just and socially sustainable.
Debates
during this studious and committed gathering will be organized
around four major themes:
production of wealth, access to wealth, affirmation of civil
society and the public arena, and political and ethical power.
The aim of WSF II is to reflect on the best ways to promote
the values of justice, solidarity and democratic participation
and, on the basis of this analysis and the resulting diagnosis,
to start to make proposals and strategies different from the
"neoliberal" kind connected with globalization and
its new orthodox thinking. While the globalization process
brings with it forms of integration, it also generates forms
of exclusion by providing new opportunities of enrichment
for significant sectors and groups of society while marginalizing
numerous other political and social actors.
UNESCO,
as a laboratory of ideas and as the organization responsible
for international intellectual and scientific cooperation
must naturally take an active part in the global movement
in favour of social development, by contributing to the progress
of knowledge and the establishment of principles and policies.
It is for this reason that UNESCO will renew its participation
this year in the WSF.
UNESCO,
in cooperation with its partners in civil society, is proposing
three workshops that will focus on contemporary issues relating
to the Organization’s fields of competence – Education, the
Sciences, Culture and Communication – while trying to establish
links between scientific knowledge and public action. It will
also have a stand on the WSF premises to provide information
on the Organization’s activities and an area for informal
discussion and reflection.
The
time has come to ask ourselves: What are the possible alternatives
when confronted with a globalization process that is exclusively
market-driven and devoid of solidarity? Is it possible to
implement the processes of globalization with social justice
as the main goal?
UNESCO’s
participation in the World Social Forum is important. UNESCO
and WSF share the conviction that they must reinforce the
collective and alternative building of a new social order.
Strengthened with realistic strategies, this joint utopia
may one day see the human aspiration to a fairer world come
true, and globalization and human rights become two converging
movements. During the first World Social Forum, UNESCO instigated
a debate on democratic governance. This is a strategic theme
that we propose to build upon in a political and future-oriented
discussion.
At the
centre of this debate, the contributions of the African, Asian,
European and Latin American participants will cover four basic
questions:
- the
role of the State and of social movements in reinforcing
the capacity of democracies to oppose and manage globalization
to the benefit of their citizens;
- international
regulating bodies already in existence and those needing
to be set up;
- the
means of introducing governance of the global system founded
on democratic principles;
- the
roles for the United Nations and for non-State actors,
particularly NGOs, in such global democratic governance.
It has
been seen from the different publications covering this debate
that there is a need for deeper analyses of democracy as a
complex system for managing conflicts that favours the political
over economic aspects. Hence the generative question: how
should democracy be viewed in the face of the political representation
crisis and the emergence of new forms of citizenship?
With "Democratic
governance" as a general strategic theme, the debate
this year will be more focused, dealing with specific issues
situated historically in a particular time and place. The
programme that UNESCO is proposing for WSF II has three themes
that will be developed in three seminars:
The seminars
aim to promote an open debate on the main themes of the WSF,
and more specifically on:
- access
to possessions and sustainability;
- dynamics,
social movements and governance;
- principles,
values and cultural identity.
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