THE JO'BURG MEMO
FAIRNESS IN A FRAGILE WORLD
A Memorandum for the World Summit on Sustainable Development
Check
out our web site special on the Jo'burg Memo.
The Memorandum is Heinrich Boell Foundation's contribution to the debate
on both the desired outcomes of the Summit and the critical path for the
sustainable development agenda in the next decade.
We publish this Memorandum a few months before the Summit, at a critical
juncture of renewed political momentum. The Jo'burg Memo shall be available
as an input for the deliberations of NGOs, experts, and governments preparing
for Johannesburg. With such a thought piece, the foundation hopes to foment
self-reflection within the NGO community and to promote the dialogue between
non-governmental activists, open-minded managers and political representatives.
Last not least, the foundation wants to offer a visible contribution to
the formation of an informed and critical world public around the World
Summit 2002.
The Memorandum raises the central but oft-forgotten question ”Development
yes, but what kind of development and for whom?” Its recommendations are
grounded firmly in the principles of ecological sustainability and equity.
The text concentrates on elaborating on the mutual and intricate relationship
of ecology and equity, while not pretending that it deals exhaustively
with poverty eradication in all its manifold dimensions. It combines a
critical account of the post-Rio decade with a rich set of proposals how
to change the paradigms of unsustainable development and to promote civic,
social and environmental rights. In spite of different views on the ongoing
process of globalisation the authors agree about the urgent need to re-integrate
markets in a framework of social and environmental regulations and limitations
on a local, regional, national and global level. The demand for a redistribution
of rights and resources stands in the very centre of the memorandum.
The composition of the Memorandum’s authorship reflects the diversity
of our international network, from North and South, from East and West,
from NGOs, science, politics, and business. The meetings of the authors
were convened in both the venues of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio and the
forthcoming Johannesburg Summit, as well as Berlin, the capital of an
EU Member State whose government has started to take serious steps towards
translating sustainability into concrete policy. The work of the Group
has now resulted in the 84 page memorandum that was presented to the international
public at the PrepComm III in New York. Subsequently, the memorandum will
be disseminated in several languages. In the months prior to the World
Summit and during the Summit itself, the foundation will use the memorandum
as an instrument for public events and debates in various places and contexts.
Check
out our web site special on the Jo'burg Memo.
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