THE WORLD COMES TO ONE COUNTRY

An insider history of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg 2002; by Victor Munnik and Jessica Wilson, published by the Heinrich Boell Foundation Southern Africa Office.

What happened at the World Summit on Sustainable Development? The World Comes to One Country attempts to answer this question from a civil society perspective, based on interviews with insiders, ongoing discussions with prominent players from all sides and the author's own experience. It introduces the main actors in South African civil society and documents how they engaged in a fierce contest for control of the international civil society forum, and South African preparations for it. The story is told against the background of the South African government strategy as Summit hosts, the role of the New Partnership for African's Development (Nepad) and the dynamics in international civil society. The fundamental issues at stake in the WSSD negotiations are explored in some detail, with a focus on those that cause tensions between North and South. The book analyses the complex relationship between South African civil society and a government that had come to power as a popular liberation movement. It provides insights into the nature of civil society in the South, and the role it could play in global governance. It argues that civil society actors inside the United Nations arena and social movements outside it can and should work together to make a different and better world possible.

[ pdf; 88 pages ]