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For its fourth and - if things go as planned - final meeting, the Reflection Group is kindly hosted by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation in Uppsala, Sweden. While there is a lot do for the group on the three days from the 16th-18th of September, the group will also listen to this year's "Dag Hammarskjöld Lecture" delivered by Jan Eliasson, former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden and former President of the UN General Assembly.

 

Already on Thursday, September 15th, 19.15h, members of the group will join for public panel debate on "20 Years After Rio – Global Development Perspectives" at Uppsala University Building, Hall IX. Roberto Bissio (Uruguay), Yoke Ling Chee (Malaysia), Jorge Ishizawa (Peru), and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (Philippines) will discuss under the moderation of Henning Melber.

The Reflection Group met for the third time in direct succession to the Social Watch Global Assembly in Manila, Philippines. The discussions brought many new insights. With the meeting in Uppsala coming up shortly, the group started working on the final outcome, that was decided to be in the form of a report on the "development" and well-being.
 

At their second meeting in New York City, 4-6 March 2011, the members of the Reflection Group formulated the following appeal. The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development - Rio 2012, must change the dominant mindset by Restoring public rights over corporate privileges after thirty years of strengthening the power of investors and big corporations through deregulation, trade and financial liberalization, tax cuts and exemptions, and weakening the role of the state; and after the market-driven financial meltdown. The principles and values of the Rio Declaration and the UN Millennium Declaration, adopted by heads of states and governments, are threatened and urgently need to be re-established. They include Human Rights, Freedom, Equality, Solidarity, Diversity, Respect for Nature, and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities. Corporate interests do not uphold these principles and values.

The first meeting of the Reflection Group took place January 12-14 in Berlin. The meeting was a great start for the work of the group with a shared sense of urgency and commitment by the members. A report on the meeting will be available soon. Filomeno S. Sta. Ana III has already written an essay on the meeting that was published in the January 17, 2011 edition of BusinessWorld.

Beijing/Berlin/Montevideo/New York/Uppsala, November 15, 2010 – Today, an alliance of civil society groups, networks and foundations, including Third World Network, Social Watch, DAWN, the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, Global Policy Forum, terre des hommes, and the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, launched the Civil Society Reflection Group on Global Development Perspectives.

The group consists of about 15 leading civil society activists, experts and academics from around the globe. The group will assess conventional and alternative models of development and well-being, reconsider development goals and indicators, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), draw conclusions for future development strategies and provide specific policy recommendations for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development 2012.

We find ourselves at a crucial point in time – fast approaching the 2015 deadline for the MDGs, while preparing for the 2012 Conference on Sustainable Development. Today’s unprecedented coincidence of global crises – economic, financial, food and climate – reveals the dead end to which the dominating models of development have led us. It is now time to break old ground, to draw lessons from these crises and to fundamentally rethink our goals and measures of development and social progress – in North and South.

The time between the Summits 2010 and 2012 provides a unique window of opportunity to reconsider the current development paradigm and to develop strategies towards a holistic, rights-based approach of global development and well-being.

Four meetings of the Reflection Group are scheduled to take place throughout 2011. The expected outcome will be presented in a report to be published prior to the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development.

Group Members

Barbara Adams (Global Policy Forum, US), Beryl d’Almeida (Abandoned Babies Committee, Zimbabwe), Alejandro Chanona Burguete (National Autonomous University of México), Chee Yoke Ling (Third World Network, China), Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker (Germany), Filomeno Santa Ana III (Action for Economic Reforms, Philippines), George Chira (terre des hommes India), Gigi Francisco (Development Alternatives with Women for the New Era, Philippines), Henning Melber (Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, Sweden), Jorge Ishizawa (Proyecto Andino de Tecnologias Campesinas, Peru), Karma Ura (Centre for Bhutan Studies, Bhutan), Roberto Bissio (Third World Institute/Social Watch, Uruguay) Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (Tebtebba Foundation, Philippines), Yao Graham (Third World Network-Africa, Ghana), Jens Martens (Global Policy Forum Europe, Germany), Hubert Schillinger (Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, Germany), Danuta Sacher (terre des hommes Germany).