Statement by Prof. Alfredo Sfeir-Younis, Special Representative of the World Bank to the United Nations

Geneva, 17 July 2002—World Civil Society Forum

Audio

Ladies and Gentlemen

Certainly, you have honoured me with this invitation to speak today.

I’d like to start by saying that we live a moment in history where we need to take fundamental decisions and these decisions must be taken right now. A moment when there is conflict almost everywhere in the world; a moment in history when we must understand once and for all that we live only in one world and that we have one collective responsibility. A moment when we need to question deeply the means and the instruments of economic development and human progress. Many do not work any longer and we know that more of the same will still be more of the same.

A moment when we must know why all our societies are incapable to maintain the human and holistic values as we move to development implementations. A moment when we must stop posturing and form a new deal, a new coalition for change. We know that most political parties, most institutions, most religions, all try to eradicate poverty, eliminate environmental degradation, improve the welfare of women and children, and so on, but in despite of that, development judged by its results, essentially, we see that people are getting worse off.

We are going to spend hours in this Forum debating whether the glass is half-empty or half-full, or divide ourselves among the pessimist and the optimist. However, we can all disregard the fact that half of the world is earning less than 2 dollars a day and that in fact of all the total consumption of the world of 24 trillions dollars, the top reached 20 % is consuming 86 % of it and the bottom poor 20 % is only consuming 1.6 %.

To this we can add the discrimination against women and girls, racial battles, economic marginalization and ethnic cleansing. Globalisation has accelerated the base of change and heightened the importance of our global and local interconnectedness. Traditional and conceptual sovereignty and physical boundaries are, in fact, vanishing the speed of light and global governance is acquiring a new place in the international debate.

Also, we see that there is a mistrust about all institutions in our society, particularly by the youth and the generation that is just behind us. A huge institutional vacuum, not because of an age differential, but major value and ideological differences between generations.

While my generation is speaking about growth, production, consumption, productivity and technology, the new generation is concerned about social justice, empowerment, equity, participation and solidarity. Today, we all want a new development paradigm, since the traditional paradigm we practice today, its limits have been reached. We are saying that development and progress is not anymore a physical thing or acquiring a material thing, just take the views of Amarty Sen, who has the fine development of freedom, he has moved the debate from simply acquiring material things, doing and having, to the fundamental question of being and becoming.

And poor people are telling us that poverty is not just a material thing, it is not just income alone, they are saying us that poverty is a situation that lacks empowerment and it needs opportunities and security.

Today, human and social norms have become increasingly important and this development must not be sought within an ethical and moral vacuum or in a humanistic vacuum. This is why we need to focus on human rights and economic development. All these dimensions demonstrate a critical role civil society place today. Any consensus of normative values must have its origins in the grass roots, a consensus of normative values must come from the cities and the people of Bombay, Kinshasa or the towns of Rio Santiago, Manila or Dakar. Development must become a co-equal process to break down traditional boundaries, power structures and traditional forms of organization. And in this process, civil society organizations play a vital role. The key challenge today is to establish a new and more effective form of international cooperation for socio-economic development and thus consolidate and clearly provide an effective platform for civil society.

In this millennium it is encumbered upon us to mortify the selection of policies and new instruments. We witnessed how the end of cold war brought a new agenda for peace and development. However, this moment in history, it is civil society that needs to come back with a new agenda for development, a new agenda for peace, a new agenda for social justice, empowerment and government for all. Your role is essential to change the course of humanity, your role is indispensable if we are going to benefit the poor of the poor in our societies. Your role is essential to decrease the cost of market transactions and as a means of economic development. Your role is central to enhance local organizations and be able to maintain the cherished values and relief systems of local communities. Your role is fundamental in maintaining social coherence and social stability, even in communities that are in war today. Your role is essential to challenge the voice and the needs of the voiceless and the disempowered. Your role is not only social, but economic, financial, political, institutional, human, spiritual and moral, to name a few.

These are irreplaceable roles for civil society, but they bring tremendous responsibility.

Clearly, advocacy, for the sake of advocacy, will simply not do.

But development cooperation without a strong advocacy or social inclusion and empowerment, also will not do.

The foundation of a new international cooperation must be based on strong and

co-holistic human values, values that put peoples first, enable them to attain their highest level of self-realisation and given the importance of globalisation today, we must understand self-realisation as individual and collective.

Human self-realisation must be the fundamental essence and the purpose of international cooperation in the new millennium. We must not anchor this cooperation on the values of the past contradicting the aims and hope of people that they have today. International cooperation might create the spaces for the realisation of these humanistic values. International cooperation must take new account of processes.

I am one of those that believe that all international cooperation did not fail by its aim, but it failed on processes and development implementations. International cooperation must be effective, enriching the poor, the powerless and the voiceless.

To reach them we must strengthen community base development approaches and find ways and instruments, which are yet to be designed and implemented. It will be civil society that will take the baton and lead the responsibility.

This event must become the cornerstone in the foundation of a new social architecture; this is a paramount and urgent ask. In this case international cooperation cannot move us away form the profound social changes we experience today. International cooperation cannot counter or delay the social changes that need to attain peace, human security and social stability. It cannot be but realistic based on humanistic approaches to public decision-making.

Humanistic, not only in the sense that people must be first, but in the sense of creating societies that embrace the challenge of inclusion in all the dimensions including culture and race diversity. The future of international cooperation will rest on our capacity to create new forms of government and new forms of governance at global level. The future of international cooperation will go far beyond economics and finance, but let’s not be mistaking, economics and finance is of fundamental importance.

Globalisation must be transformational force to change the hierarchy of thinking, functions, policies to benefit everyone in this planet.

Let me finish by saying that this forum is of tremendous importance. This forum takes place at a crucial moment in history and it must succeed, but its access will not be measured by endless debates on old issues or on who is fastest to point fingers with regard to who is responsible for the negative result of the development.

Its access will be measured by the quality of its transformational values, which will define a new agenda, that everyone might be identified with. We cannot create agendas for an elite, elites of civil society governments or anyone.

It is here where we must reflect seriously upon the creation of a new global civil society structure, a forum widely representative that will make a reality the first sentence of the UN “We the People”

My friends, let’s be clear, prosperity for a few, in the long term, is prosperity for nobody.

Thank you very much.