International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #80
July 1st 2010
Summary

Objectives of the RIO+20 Summit

Message from the Editorial Team

The 1992 Rio Summit can be credited with putting environmental concerns and principles of sustainable development on the agenda of global policy issues. The representatives of the socio-economic world, states and civil society have been obliged to confront reality: how to transform the production model and consumption to ensure a viable future for both humanity and the biosphere. Twenty years later, we have come to the realization that resources are limited, and we know that the classical solutions of economic recovery will be powerless to solve problems. Globally, the situation has worsened: there is more enduring poverty, and extreme poverty is increasing in less developed countries. Food dependency has risen, social and economic inequalities are more marked. There is a loss of biodiversity, unsustainable pressures on ecosystems, accelerating climate change and global warming.
The question is whether we are now able to break away from the political schizophrenia, with one side promoting fair and sustainable green solutions, and the other demanding strategies and actions that are clearly heading in the opposite direction, in the name of competitiveness and free trade. The real challenge of RIO + 20 will be to redefine the debate on the basis of these realities. The event is scheduled to take place in Brazil, June 4th – 6th 2012. It will indeed be difficult to achieve a political determination to reach consensus. If we, as society, allow ourselves to become trapped in the cacophony of partial or biased views or expert solutions that have no democratic basis, if we do not bring concrete systemic proposals to the negotiation table, who will do so? As we wrote in the Newsletter #78 (May 2011), we believe that alternative approaches are more realistic than the irresponsibility that currently prevails at the top, and that has generated the current crisis. The urgent outcry of "freedom" by people to abolish autocratic and self-proclaimed regimes and the indignation of the world's youth whose future is at stake, are good reasons not to despair. The new generation is taking its place, and asking how it can transform the unacceptable into hope.

This issue of our Newsletter is devoted to initiatives involved in the framework of preparation for the Earth Summit. Until June 2012, we plan to relay those specific dynamics that assert citizens’ participation as a viable political choice. Active participation of communities is an essential aspect if we are to successfully change course. People need to solve the issues that concern them. The global and the local cannot be separated.

RIPESS International will contribute to the intercontinental exchange: The FBES (Brazilian Forum of Solidarity Economy) is actively involved in the umbrella organization of Brazilian NGOs and social movements that is leading the preparation of a People's Summit to be hosted in Rio de Janeiro from June 4th – 6th 2012. It is a call to join and contribute to "Reinvent the world."

The next issue will be published on September 1st

We are pleased to inform you that our newsletter is now available in Japanese. It is translated by Yuko Wada of the Policy Research Institute for the Civil Sector (PRICS) of the Seikatsu Club Co-operative Union of Japan. The latest available issue is number 78. It is available on request.

Editorial Team
Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut


The Objectives of the RIO+20 Summit
According to the UN resolution A/RES/64/236 - the Conference has three objectives: to obtain a renewed political commitment for sustainable development, evaluate progress and difficulties in the implementation of desired outcomes, and meet new and emerging challenges. The Conference will have two official themes: 1) green economy in the context of poverty eradication and sustainable development and, 2) the institutional framework for sustainable development. It is clear that we need to go further than this.
The green economy, a new oxymoron, does not guarantee the fundamental principle of sustainability or the commitment to fight consumerism, individualism or short-termism. The concept does not fit with democracy, the fourth component added to the Curitiba Charter in 1992 to the 3 others (economic, ecological and social). It remains a very weak link, used to launch the implementation of Agenda 21. A critical and constructive assessment at international level would be of great interest to all.
The institutional framework, the principle of national sovereignty and the right to compete for economic activities are inappropriate or contrary to the implementation of the principles of higher interest. We hope to advance this idea by promoting binding agreements.
Finally, how can we establish legitimate authority in a world where interactions are enmeshed? What is our individual responsibility in terms of economy, society, culture and nature? How can we link these major areas with one another and to our own lives?

The unprecedented context requires us to invent new answers.

The creation of the French RIO + 20 Collective

In late 2010, a small group of organizations led by the 4D Association began the initiative of involving as many actors as possible in the transition towards a new state of the world in the twenty-first century. It now brings together many different civil society actors as well as trade unions. It has two objectives:
 Consider possible change and make concrete proposals in 5 working groups. Each group will produce a 10-page discussion paper, highlighting both disagreement and consensus. This will then feed into proposals for formal negotiations aimed at stimulating debate and public discussion.
 Prepare to mobilize by examining events in France from an international perspective, working jointly with our international partners on other continents to input content that is relevant to the general public, as well as on projects that create change and a shift to a different paradigm, that support the transition, and advocate the need for international solidarity.

Since March 2011, the Europeans P'ACTS have joined the Work Group on the green economy.
Their involvement on this subject has enabled the collective to put forward its views to:

1. The French RIO + 20 Collective to illustrate ideas through examples and declarations and to propose Rebuilding the Economy on a territorial basis. :
"Territories perform core functions in the coordination of relations between actors and between different levels and scales in society; they also allow people to invent answers to key issues in the real economy and invent ways for “how to live together”. Territories must therefore be recognized as social and economic actors in their own right.

Organised answers to issues of employment, food, sustainable local development, culture, funding, local services, transportation, and citizenship all exist at territorial level.... These projects already act as a lever for the local economy. The organisations involved have various legal statuses, both for profit and non-profit making; they all reject and work outside the existing economic system that is solely aimed at profit making. They also produce and reinvest profits and create territorial social capital”.

2. The European debate: Priscila Soares, Project Coordinator at In LOCO Association (Algarve, Portugal), a member of P'ACTS, participated in the «Public Consultation on the EU position for the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development»

Two proposals she made are of particular interest:

The place of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) in the transition:
“The Global Compact Initiative mainly involves big corporations (…), but it would be much needed to mobilize the Small and Medium Enterprises too. Nor UN neither one of its bodies can reach them directly but it is possible to approach, to promote and to encourage experiences and movements all over the world that count on the involvement of SME in local and regional processes oriented towards sustainable development and participatory democracy. This option will open to the understanding of how SME serve the communities and territories they are associated with and how they are interconnected with other actors also implied in the same experiences and movements.”

The second is how P’ACTS targets a specific European level:
“The European Union needs to be a more coherent reality – in political, social and economic terms – in order to play a key role at the Summit. Without an intrinsic change in that direction UE will lose the capacity to furnish new ideas and the credibility to mobilize citizens, civil society organizations or states around them. How can Europe ensure a generous financial support for governance and capacity building if there is no common European position in relation to the financing of UN and its bodies?
EU can and should mobilize the European civil society for a deep engagement in the preparation of the Summit, in the event and in the subsequent dynamics.
Following its tradition EU can and should propose and promote a large and deep participation of civil society in the process of achieving Sustainable Development at European, national, regional and local levels. By doing so Europe will pursue this main goal within its territory and will provide examples and models of governance that can be useful and inspiring at international level.
In parallel EU can promote the integration of sustainability responsibilities into corporate social responsibility, improving and enlarging its conceptual and for-action framework.
Equally important it would be to integrate the European Sustainable Development Strategy in the European Strategy 2020, overcoming a fragmented and sectoral approach to sustainable development.
On the other side, it seems clearly necessary to strengthen UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) but the possibility of creating a World Environmental Organisation has to be pondered in order to avoid multiplying the UN bodies without assuring the transversal coordination among them?”

3- The roadmap for the European Network of Social and Solidarity Economy that plans to hold its Foundation Congress in Barcelona, September 9th and 10th 2011. P’ACTS will jointly be leading a work group with the Catalonia Solidarity Economy Network « Xarxa d'economia solidària » (XES) on SSE, territorial development, and food sovereignty: what convergence can we jointly build?
In French: http://wiki.ripesseu.net/index.php/Groupe_de_travail_3

4- Share useful information through the international Newsletter

Information on civil society mobilisation :
Article 21 of Resolution 64/236 of March 2010: « …Commits all major groups to active participation in the preparatory activities at all stages ». A stakeholder Forum will take place beforehand to promote the participation of civil society organisations with links to the UN. It is worth bearing in mind that the UN considers NGOs, trade unions, companies, Local Authorities, scientific communities, women, youth, farmers, indigenous peoples as these major civil society groups.
http://www.earthsummit2012.org

Existing mobilisation:

The facilitation Committee of Brazilian civil society was founded on 3rd November 2010 at the instigation of Brazilian environmental and social organisations and Brazilian social movements. It is called « The Peoples’ Summit » and is characterised by « its independence. It aims to combine plurality with the possibility to dialogue with official bodies and other dynamic sectors ».
http://www.ong-ngo.org/IMG/pdf/CALL_FOR_CSFC_RIO20_final.pdf
http://vitaecivilis.org/rio2012/images/stories/pub/Venez_reinventer_le_monde_a_Rio.pdf

The Peoples’ Summit has essentially been initiated and supported by IBASE. (Instituto Brasileiro de Análises Sociais e Econômicas) (in Portuguese) http://www.ibase.br/
The Foundation for the Progress of Humankind is devoting its resources and those of several of their partners’ to the preparation of the Peoples’ Summit. The following website has been created to « provide an overall vision of international mobilisation. »
www.rio20.net in 4 languages

Martine Theveniaut

For more information (in French and partially in English)
www.association4d.org/
www.affinitiz.net/space/rio2012 a space to facilitate exchanges between members of the RIO+20 Collective
The following are available in English and Portuguese:
Calendar of events concerning Rio-2012
http://collectif-france.rio20.net/files/2011/06/Agenda_RIO_20_2011_2012.pdf
UNEP Green Economy report: http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy



Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/

Special thanks to:
Brunilda Rafael (France) for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin (Brazil) for the Portuguese translation
Évéline Poirier (Canada) for the English translation
Judith Hitchman for the final revision of the English version.

To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca

International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #79 – June 1st, 2011
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Summary

Barcelona Consensus Declaration 1.0
Announcement: RIPESS Info #18


Editorial Message

After more than ten years, the World Social Forum has helped civil society to develop many networks that have now become internationally recognised. But the vocation of the Forum has never been action-oriented : it is a place for exchange and networking. This has, over the years led to some understandable frustration for those networks that want to reach beyond mere discussion, and the resulting creation of some networks that reach beyond the World Social Forum, even though many of the participants are also active within the WSF process. This is the case of the Via Campesina and the Assembly of Social Movements that brings together many different networks.
In this issue we would like to share one of the initiatives led by movements that, although in many cases involved in the WSF process, have decided to come together with others to create an action called The Barcelona Consensus. Given the number of organisations, it would be unfair to name some and not others. All the names of the people and structures that have participated to date are listed on-line in the annex of the declaration at www.barcelonaconsensus.org
The Barcelona Consensus is a process that began in 2008, under the guidance of Marti Olivella of Nova in Barcelona, Catalonia. The initiative is born from the desire to act and build sustainable alternatives. 250 thinkers and leaders of social movements from around the world have contributed to developing shared objectives.
As of May 3rd, when the Barcelona Consensus was officially launched, any organisation may sign up to the Barcelona Consensus, and choose which of the 67 objectives they wish to implement as a Transition Plan. This is a concrete way of making other worlds possible, and making sure that the actions and alternatives are firmly rooted in sustainable local development, that are the core preoccupation of our Newsletter. Judith had the privilege of taking part in the Consensus meeting in Barcelona, as usual in the role of interpreter. She felt that the Declaration would interest all our readers. It is a truly global approach to linking up actions that can contribute to sustainable change.
The public ceremony to launch to Declaration was a truly multicultural event. As well as the four « official » languages interpreted by the team of volunteers (Catalan, Spanish, English and French), those delegates who took part in the ceremony also read part of the text in their native tongues : Kiswahili, Bambara, Chinese, Kikuyu, Hindi, Lithuanian, Philipino, Burmese and Togolais… !. Enabling people to express themselves in their own language is a powerful indication of the intentions of the Barcelona Consensus to act at grass-roots level.
Editorial Team
Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut

Barcelona Consensus Declaration 1.0
Committing to a Sustainable and People-centred World for All


People deserve a decent life, simply because they are human

The current global situation is unacceptable: it is structurally violent, unjust and unsustainable. We are living through one of the most decisive periods in the history of humankind, both in terms of gravity and scope. A crisis of consciousness and responsibility underlies our current predicament. Most current leaders have shown neither the ability nor the willingness to radically renew the existing economic or decision-making structures. Nor have they adopted the values needed to drive a transformation.
We live not in a time of change, but a change of times. Citizens and communities can and must respond to this multiple crisis, which threatens to engulf us all. We acknowledge innovative social political and economic practices; we witness the awakening of peoples; and uphold the sovereignty of all persons to choose their own destiny.
In order to re-build a sustainable and people-centred world for all, we must ensure that each and every person has access to adequate resources for the sustainable and equitable satisfaction of their basic needs.
We propose a new social, political and economic contract, promoted by people and communities, engaging with institutions, governments and business from different territories to build an alternative to the Washington Consensus.
The progressively implemented proposals of the Barcelona Consensus and related actions will enable us to achieve a gradual transition from a culture of constraints, domination, violence and war, to one of dialogue, conciliation, partnership and peace. We shall move from a culture of force to a culture of words, facilitated by remote electronic participation and innovative policies being pursued by some countries.
The new social contract, represented by the Barcelona Consensus, is an urgent call to reorganise our societies and to rearticulate our presence on Earth. In practical terms we propose the collective creation of Transition Plans , as ways to implement robust nonviolent processes. These shall have clear goals, methods and timelines for execution.
We call on all people in all communities to freely and deliberately commit to implementing a Transition Plan in their respective territories and fields of action (neighbourhood, town, city, sector, organisation, etc.). Summoning the imagination of everyone everywhere, together we can create a sustainable and people-centred future for all.
These plans will enable all groups to select shared goals to implement the following transitions:



1. Transition to a participatory and deliberative democracy in order to:
• Involve society in the selection of political policies for resource management and equitable distribution.
• Avoid weak or poor implementation of laws and strengthen the legitimacy of the rule of law.
• Guarantee social, health and education services and the protection of the common good of the entire population.
• Eliminate corruption and improve public management, prioritising participatory budgets; introduce information and public administration systems that guarantee the right to access information; transparency and accountability of governments.
• Facilitate the participation of vulnerable groups, first of all, women, in collective decision-making, promoting democratic practices and organisations, with effective representation, parity of men and women, in all fields.

2. Transition to environmental sustainability in order to:
• Revive a vision of human life as interdependent, intrinsically linked to living beings, nature, sun, air, water and Earth.
• Generate a new sustainable lifestyle, responsible consumption and the use of renewable energies, and progressively reduce fossil fuels and nuclear energy.
• Promote models for the regeneration and decentralisation of human settlements.
• Establish and apply stricter national and global tax policies for sustainability, introducing ecological taxes, penalties and ecologic and social incentives.
• Protect the rights of present and future generations and extend the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court to environmental and economic crimes.

3. Transition to a social, equitable and sustainable economy in order to:
• Drastically revise the economic system and lifestyle, and replace misleading economic indicators.
• Stop land grabbing and the seizing of natural resources, as well as the concentration of wealth, property and power, applying the principle of “Those who have more or earn more, contribute more.”
• Guarantee the right to dignified work , to a basic income and a decent living as this is a human right.
• Abandon the “development aid” policies that have become a way of exploiting people and resources, and establish global cooperation and exchange systems based on solidarity.
• Replace unrestricted competition with cooperation and self-management and promote the “relocalization” of production and services.
4. Transition to a non-speculative financial system in order to:
• Prosecute speculative financial activities, tax financial transactions and effectively abolish tax havens.
• Limit public indebtedness to the financial system, and recover financial sovereignty with public, social and transparent authority for monetary creation.
• Prevent money from being a means of profit and money for its own sake, and introduce alternative and transparent monetary systems under social and public control.
• Free people from slavery to servicing a public foreign debt, through renegotiation, debt relief or unilateral cancellation.
• Prevent banks from supporting businesses and projects that are hazardous for life and the planet and favour ethical financing.

5. Transition to a society of shared knowledge and democratic communication in order to:
• Consider and evaluate knowledge and the capacity to generate it, as well as to share it, as a common heritage of humanity.
• Prevent control of intellectual resources, the media and communication systems by large multinational corporations and/or political parties and support media by the people and for the people.
• Prevent the manipulation of the emerging information and communication society, giving access and control to all.
• Promote more open models of multidisciplinary scientific research and exchange of knowledge.
• Prioritise the right to health and life, and the right of all people to receive adequate healthcare and medical treatment, as opposed to paying royalties on medical patents.

6. Transition to a world beyond war and violence in order to:
• Move towards a more peaceful world, and oppose the structural causes of war and violence.
• Promote peaceful co-existence, tolerance and respect for sexual, religious, ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity, and to oppose patriarchy, femicide, caste segregation and racial prejudice.
• Advance disarmament, particularly through the prohibition of all weapons of mass destruction.
• Eliminate structural impunity for trafficking of human beings, organs, weapons, drugs, and money-laundering.
• Reinforce the right of peoples and communities to resist injustice.



7. Transition to a democratic world governance, in order to:
• Prevent plutocracy – the power of money, and progress towards an inclusive democratic world governance system based on the interests of people not of countries, including a reformed United Nations System.
• Guarantee global security and coordinated action aimed at reducing the impact of catastrophes caused by humans or nature.
• Ensure that the norms and entities of international regulation act in the public interest, in accordance with the new social and human objectives of “buen vivir” and are respectful towards the environment.
• Protect the human rights of migrants and progressively open migratory flows, working towards the free movement of persons.
• Escape from the global financial disarray caused by speculators and the International Financial Institutions, and create a new financial system and global reserve currency.
As we move forward with these transitions, we pledge to take urgent actions for survival, in order to:
• Eradicate hunger and malnutrition locally and globally, and provide clean drinking water and adequate sanitation.
• Confront the damage caused by “development” and climate change in impoverished countries.
• Avoid having recourse to armed interventions and wars, even if they are pursued in the name of “democracy”.
The financing of the proposed shared objectives can be obtained through savings made on the cost to society of weapons, corruption, tax havens and illegal trafficking, and through increasing resources thanks to social funding and public monetary creation, as well as the taxing of financial transactions and unsustainable activities and introducing a wealth tax.
And as people or groups in transition, we commit ourselves to exercising our rights as citizens not to cooperate with, collaborate with, buy from, serve or obey organisations or institutions that prevent or hinder the transition.
People and groups thereby take responsibility for choosing their own objectives and carry out their own transition strategies , sharing their proposals, actions and results with the community formed around this declaration.
All organisations may also commit to annually proposing and implementing initiatives for agreed Actions for a Common Transformation (ACT!) .

To this end

WE PLEDGE OUR SUPPORT AND COMMITMENT TO TAKE PART IN, DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT TRANSITION PLANS FOR A SUSTAINABLE PEOPLE-CENTRED WORLD FOR ALL

Barcelona, 3rd May 2011
www.barcelonaconsensus.org

Announcement: RIPESS Info #18

The Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy (RIPESS) has recently published RIPESS Info #18.

Available in French, English and Spanish at :
http://www.chantier.qc.ca/?module=document&uid=1034


Our Newsletters are available online:
http://developpementlocal.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/

Our thanks to:
Brunilda Rafael (France) for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin (Brazil) for the Portuguese translation
Judith Hitchman (France / Ireland) for the English translation
Évéline Poirier (Canada) for proof reading (FR-EN)

Contact (for information, to subscribe or unsubscribe)
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca

International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #78 – May 1st, 2011
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Summary

RIPESS - Press Release
FIESS – Programme and registration

Editorial Message

The Board meeting of RIPESS national that was held in Paris from March 28th – 31st is the basis of the main news item for the 78th number of our Newsletter. This was the first time since 2009 that almost all the Board members had been able to get together for long enough to have time to become familiar with each others’ activities and discuss fundamental questions and stakes. This was all possible thanks to the invitation extended by the FPH (Fondation pour le Progrès de l’Homme) in the context of their partnership with the RIPESS coordination; Nancy Neamtan of the Chantier de l’Economie Sociale du Québec currently takes rsponsibility for duties of the secretariat.. It flags an important moment that marks both the conclusion and a fresh starting point for the solidarity economy movement as a whole. Key issues were ironed out, ensuring that values are genuinely shared. There was agreement on the roadmap for the collective project of the next two years; it will be carried forward by a truly international team, grounded in concrete practice and implemented at intercontinental level. A work procedure and timeline were built around an international citizens’ agenda. The first stages are included in the Press Release published on April 6th. We have included it in this issue.
For all three of us, this was a particularly satisfying moment, as our ongoing involvement enabled us to participate in the non-official business of the Board’s exchange. It is also very encouraging, and helps inspire us to continue our work of sharing information on community and local initiatives, as well as events in the networks we are in contact with at global level. There is a clear commitment to mutualisation and proving what works by illustrating through existing examples, as well as organising new forms and levels of solidarity. The approach includes a clearer perspective of how to link the global to the local, and to reconstruct an economy that is grounded in our respective local territories. And far from being a contradiction, the global dimension is present in the local. This is all very concrete; it is still however very complex to gain acceptance for democratic complementarities and cooperation in terms of local practice, general organisation, regulation and behaviour... It involves huge challenges to achieve a peaceful shift to new development perspectives, to reduce inequalities, stop the destruction of natural resources, move away from nuclear energy and gain acceptance for the idea of transforming the dominant growth model that is not a viable one. How can we manage to move forward from the current situation to a planet that will be viable for us all to share?
Two requests that were made during the meeting focus on the alternative dimension that solidarity economy has already considered in recent decades. Members of RIPESS whose countries are in Regions that are currently witnessing popular uprisings against dictatorships wonder how they can help the democratic culture of their societies to develop. Our networks have accumulated collective learning experiences, but we have yet to invent ways and means for supporting transfers of this scale; it is a real challenge for citizenship and global peace. Our Japanese friends have also sent us an appeal. They are coping with the consequences of a situation that is not of their making: they have requested we revive discussion on the nuclear issue, as nuclear disasters are destructive of all the most fundamental aspects of life. For aid to be effective, local solidarity is the first essential step; but medium and long term perspectives for developing the kind of world we want for future generations, means reopening discussion on these issues. If we fail to discuss the kind of future we want, how can we achieve a strong enough consensus to stay the course? And given our experience and outcomes we have already achieved, if we don’t take up these issues, who else will do so?
Our Newsletter hopes to contribute to these perspectives through its ongoing editorial line: independent, bottom-up, our modest voluntary contribution to a commitment to share concrete examples and collective convergence that will help us all become more influential and develop our ability to speak up. We remain convinced that alternative approaches are a more realistic option today, that they are more desirable than the current irresponsibility, accelerated by its own impetus, and that reigns at the highest levels and is driving us all towards destruction. We have always attached great importance since we started publishing our Newsletter, to building solidarity that reaches across cultural and linguistic divides. That is why we publish in four languages, because there is still far too little exchange of knowledge and too few horizontal relationships between local inhabitants wherever they happen to live, with those in other countries, who speak other languages, at different levels of society, with those who are also trying to build and gain recognition for new forms of solidarity, aimed at changing our current model of society.
So we would like to call on all of you, as subscribers to this Newsletter, to express your opinion on the usefulness, the subjects and content, as well as sending us your ideas for increasing and multiplying the impacts...so that we can all join in helping these objectives to develop in the current difficult times. And publish more of your stories in the various parts of the world.
Editorial Team
Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut


Participants at the RIPESS meeting in Paris

Seated: Jean-François Aubin (Canada), Françoise Wautiez (France), Emily Kawano (United States), Judith Hitchman (Ireland), Martine Theveniaut (France)¸Alejandra Garcia Paton (France), Nancy Neamtan (Canada), Yves Tixier (France) Standing: Madani Koumaré (Mali), Ana Leighton (Chile), Christine Gent (United Kingdom), Noureddine El Harrak (Morocco), Daniel Tygel (Brazil), Ben Quiñones (Philippines), Carlos Amorìn (Uruguay), Éric Lavillunière (Luxemburg). Denison Jayasooria (Malaysia), William Elie (France), Yvon Poirier (Canada), Sunil Chitrakar (Nepal)



RIPESS - Press release

April 6th, 2011
From March 28 to 31, in Paris, the Board of Directors of RIPESS (Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy) met and took note of the significant advances of the social and solidarity economy movement in all the continents... During the meeting, the Board confirmed its determination to pursue and reinforce the promotion of the social and solidarity economy as an answer to the crisis facing our countries.

RIPESS, a network based on the dynamics of five continental networks, brings together thousands of social and solidarity organisations and enterprises... During the four day meeting, the Board reiterated its belief that, more than ever, the social and solidarity economy (SSE) is a necessary alternative to the dominant development model which continues to generate poverty and exclusion and has lead the world into a deep environmental crisis..

Information sharing permitted the Board to observe that continental networks are consolidating themselves in Africa, Europe, Latin America and Caribbean, Asia and North America. The Board adopted a strategy to facilitate communications and pursue the work to build strong continental networks.

Representatives from different continents brought to the Board’s attention situations which require both immediate support and a long term reflection... The mass movements in Arabic countries raise the question of the path and the economic strategies necessary to respond to the aspirations expressed by these popular uprising. Beyond the immediate and concrete solidarity that we must express to our Japanese brothers and sisters, how must we respond to the questions about our development model that this nuclear crisis has raised? Finally, the current repression against the popular movement in Honduras reminds us that the development of a social and solidarity economy must go hand in hand with the respect of human rights and the exercise of democracy.

In the next months, the RIPESS Board agreed to profit from several international events to continue its work of promotion, collaboration and proposition of the social and solidarity economy. The first event will be the International Forum on the social and solidarity economy (FIESS), which will take place in Montreal, Canada, October 17th to 20th 2011. This forum will bring together representatives of governments and civil society, to reflect on the policies needed to support the development of the social and solidarity economy... The Asian Solidarity Economy Forum (ASEF), which will take place in November 2011 in Kuala Lumpur, will allow representatives from several Asian countries to give themselves a common strategy for the development of the social and solidarity economy in Asia. In 2012, it will be in Tunisia where the African network will meet to consolidate a SSE rooted in Africa’s realities... Finally, in response to an the invitation from RIPESS Latin-America and Caribbean (RIPESS-LAC), RIPESS agreed to meet again in RIO, during the RIO+20 event, to reinforce the contribution of social and solidarity economy to a larger movement for a more human, more sustainable and more equitable development model.

In conclusion, the RIPESS meeting in Paris underlined the fact that, in spite of different realities, social and solidarity economy actors around the world share a common vision and values. They are determined to continue to deepen their exchanges in order to better articulate and above all build a social and solidarity economy which places people and the future of our planet at the centre of its concerns.

For more information:

Maude Brossard
Chantier de l’économie sociale-Canada-Amérique du Nord
info@ripess.org



FIESS – Program and Registration

Dear colleagues, collaborators, partners and friends,
We are extremely pleased and enthusiastic to announce that the Program of the International Forum on the Social and Solidarity Economy (FIESS) is now available online, and the Registration is now open.
All registration to the event, which will take place in Montreal from the 17th to the 20th October 2011, will be done online at www.fiess2011.orgWhen registering, you will also be able to reserve a hotel room for your stay and enrol in other activities organized around the FIESS, in particular field trips to visit local social economy organisations.
On the website, you will also fin detailed information on the activities and presentations that will take place during the FIESS, practical information on Montreal and the Palais des Congrès where the event will be held, and a FAQ section to answer any other eventual questions you may have.
We look forward to seeing you in great numbers this October!
Le Chantier de l’économie sociale
forum.international2011@chantier.qc.ca



Our Newsletters are available online:
http://developpementlocal.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/

Our thanks to:
Paula Garuz Naval (Ireland) for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin (Brazil) for the Portuguese translation
Judith Hitchman (France / Ireland) for the English translation
Évéline Poirier (Canada) for proof reading (FR-EN)

Contact (for information, to subscribe or unsubscribe)
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca

International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #77 – April 1st, 2011
Summary
Message from the Editorial Team
Towards shared social responsibilities: A draft European Charter
Earth Summit - RIO+20 –2012

Message from the Editorial Team

The catastrophe that has occurred in Japan, the earthquake, tsunami and risks of nuclear contamination have deeply saddened us all. All three of us have had the opportunity of visiting Japanese organisations working towards a more human kind of development, particularly in the field of healthy food. So we would like to address a special thought to our friends involved in the Teikei system (community supported agriculture) as well as the Seikatsu Club (a consumers’ food co-operative). We wish them strength and courage.

Martine shares information on a very interesting European initiative, that of the idea of a European Charter of Social responsibilities. This is the kind of approach and particularly of the concrete implementation of new regulations that are grounded in human values, applicable at local, regional, national and international as well as European levels, as well as to all the inhabitants of our planet, one that will allow us to work towards a more just and equitable world for all people.

Although at first sight the second article is dedicated to what appears to be a very different theme, the «Earth Summit» that is scheduled to take place 20 years after the first one, held in Rio, it deals with the same fundamental issues. Both address the fundamental question of «living together» on our planet, a planet that is increasingly threatened.
The Editorial Team
Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut

Towards shared social responsibilities: A draft European Charter

On February 28th and March 1st, over 400 people from 40 countries took part in the workshops and a conference in Brussels, to examine the draft of a « European Charter of shared social responsibilities ». It was instigated by the Council of Europe, and more specifically by Gilda Farrell, Head of the Division for Research and Development of the Directorate General for Social Cohesion. This meeting was held under the joint auspices of the European Union and the Council of Europe, aimed at fully including social cohesion as a European objective for Europe as a whole, and not just limited to the 27 member States of the European community. It is also aimed at the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe; a certain number of these countries took part in the two-day programme. Shared social responsibility requires achieving a broad consensus in order to move forward, and achieve the concrete implementation of fundamental rights and the protection of common goods – both material and immaterial – as a source of fulfilment for present generations and a heritage for generations to come. Including the aspect of interdependency of actors and citizens is perceived as a requisite for the success of the project.

All too often citizens and their organisations are still considered as « weak actors » in the decision-making process. What are the mutual commitments do we need to develop to face today’s challenges and live together respecting our diversity and guaranteeing that there is a state of law, and a genuinely democratic society? This is a key question at present, as far as the borders in the South of Europe are concerned, as well as the increasingly frequent way in which the most vulnerable of our fellow European citizens are treated.

An inspiring text aimed at concrete realisation of the guiding principles

The draft project is ultimately aimed at becoming a «recommendation», to be validated by the 47 Member States of the Council of Europe. The participants felt it was very inspiring for the following reasons:
- The clarity of the appreciation it makes concerning the «growing gap between the formal recognition and the application of the principles of justice, which undermines confidence in the possibility of improving living conditions, especially for the least advantaged, and fuels feelings of insecurity in the face of these changes».
The broad scope of this text in terms of: principles as well as and perhaps especially:
The perspective of realisation that is applied to the definitions, the objectives, the policies and initiatives that it implies. The members of the ad hoc group that produced this work have hedged their bets that the implementation of shared responsibilities will «be capable of building a future climate of trust and developing social and moral resources to help the people of Europe to jointly work for the well-being of all, for social cohesion and sustainable development».
Both speakers and participants expressed the opinion that the European dimension should not stop the question from being considered at global level, where Europe has certain responsibilities it should assume. The first of these is to work on its ecological footprint in the countries of the South! There was an expression of interest that this text would be written in such a way as to allow the so-called «weak» actors be able to use it for collective construction, for legitimising their action. Reinforcing the text would be a step towards a progressive move from moral to a more binding commitment.
This all bodes well for future work, and our hopes of jointly changing things.
Martine Theveniaut
EN: http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/socialpolicies/socialcohesiondev/Conference2011_en.asp
FR: http://www.coe.int/t/dg3/socialpolicies/socialcohesiondev/conference2011_FR.asp
Earth Summit - RIO+20 –2012
Twenty years after the historical summit of 1992, RIO 2012 will take place June 4th-6th next year in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. This conference will be organised by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development.
In January 2011 there was an initial meeting of the preparatory working group at the UN headquarters in New York.
The following extract of the conclusions of this meeting are of interest to us all.
« Almost all agreed that we need to be thinking in terms of bottom-up approaches to a green economy in the context of sustainable development and poverty eradication, defined by national and local priorities and through national and local stakeholder processes.
Many countries raised concerns and questions about a green economy, which will need to be answered if we are to find a way forward towards an agreed outcome on this theme at Rio 2012. A few of the areas of concern include the relationship between:
(i) green economy and poverty eradication,
(ii) green economy and employment,
(iii) green economy and trade,
(iv) green economy and technology,
(v) green economy and finance.»
here is already much preparatory work being done in different countries and many working groups are already up and running. International NGOs have come together via the « Earth Summit 2012 » initiative.
Yvon Poirier
Official site is in English only. This site has only been on-line since the 23rd of February. Other languages are expected soon.
http://www.uncsd2012.org/rio20/
NGO site (in English)
http://www.earthsummit2012.org
NGO site (in English)
http://www.earthsummit2012.org/

Our Newsletters are available online:
http://developpementlocal.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/

Our thanks to:
Brunilda Rafael (France) for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin (Brazil) for the Portuguese translation
Judith Hitchman (France / Ireland) for the English translation
Évéline Poirier (Canada) for proof reading (FR-EN)

Contact (for information, to subscribe or unsubscribe)
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca

International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #76
March 1st 2011

Summary

Message from the Editorial Team

The Social Forum movement in Africa

The Human Economy
Nyéléni Bulletin

The ILO (International Labour Organization) Social and Solidarity Economy Academy


Message from the Editorial Team

Judith is back from the World Social Forum, which was held in Dakar from February 6th to 11th. She shares her impressions with us.
For our readers who understand English, we would like to recommend a book, The Human Economy, edited by Keith Hart, Jean-Louis Laville and Antonio Cattani. The editors have assembled a citizen's guide to the building of a human economy. This book for English readers is a major effort to share the state of global knowledge, particularly the reflection and analysis of works written in French, as well as Spanish and Portuguese. It does not cover Asia, which will be described in future works.
Many concepts explored in this book are familiar, like solidarity economy and local development, fair trade, microfinance and local currencies. Other essays analyze elements such as the current state of globalization and alter globalization. It also deals with very relevant concepts such as social capital or common resources.
Essentially, this book is a successful attempt to collect and present a fairly complete set of concepts relevant to understanding the challenges facing the planet, from the global to local level, as well as the range of people-centred initiatives. In this sense, it is a work of reference and training tool.

As is the case with our newsletter, we find it extremely important to allow for the exchange of knowledge across languages and cultures. In this sense, the book's editors, as well as the diverse essays from various continents fill important gaps particularly in the English-speaking world.

In this issue, we also wish to share different information, including upcoming events.

Editorial Team
Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut

The Social Forum movement in Africa

The 2011 edition of the World Social Forum was held at the Cheik Anta Diop University in Dakar, the capital of Senegal from February 6th -11th. In the ten-year history of the WSF, it was the third time the Forum came back to Africa, following the polycentric WSF in Bamako in 2006, and that of Nairobi in 2007. Most people living outside Africa are not aware of the depth and vibrant nature of the social forum process and growing strength social movements throughout the continent, with the many national, regional and thematic fora that have also taken place there in recent years.

Africa is the continent that is probably suffering most severely from the combined effects of the neo-liberal crisis of our civilisation. The impacts of migration, climate change, land- and common goods-grabbing are widely felt by a broad cross-section of the communities. There has long been a chronic lack of adequate investment in infrastructure and basic public services in all African countries, although there are considerable variations from one country to another. The traditional informal economic model does not generate tax, and the imposed neo-colonialist exploitation of resources by multinationals pays little into the coffers of the States. These combined factors have resulted in the destruction of the traditional solidarity-based society, massive threats to peasant agriculture and commonage, insufficient education and healthcare systems and megalopoles that are lacking in basic services… In Senegal alone, the State can only cover 70% of the needs in electrical power at any one moment, so power cuts are a daily occurrence, frequently lasting for as much as 48 hours. Basic food costs are also rising at an alarming rate, as a result of Economic Partnership Agreements that favour the importing of cheap surplus production rather than encouraging food sovereignty and local production and processing. Remittances from migrants living abroad, a mainstay of many African families, and a key source of income throughout African society, have fallen sharply as those living abroad suffer increasingly from unemployment. It is therefore not surprising that there is increasing unrest and riots and that civil society is organised in strong local networks.

Strong grassroots mobilisation

It is against this background that caravans from all over North, West and Central Africa converged for the Forum. At the opening march, there were an estimated 70,000 participants. The Forum itself probably brought together over twice that number (an estimated 75,000 people participated). No exact figure is possible, as it was a truly open space, with no gate controls and a far greater grass-roots participation than any previous edition. This mobilisation in a country like Senegal (total population 13 million, 3 million living in Dakar), is in itself a significant dimension. There were 10,000 registered participants from countries of the North. Students, local inhabitants groups, small-scale farmers, migrants’ associations, trade unionists and members of other social movements made up the vast majority of participants, all mingling in the chaos of the Forum. Fewer intellectuals, far more local mobilisation than ever before. A significant sign of the times.

The Forum was held at the same time as historic events were sweeping through countries a little further north: the fall of dictatorships and revolutions, first in Tunisia, then in Egypt provided a meaningful background to the meetings. Mubarak’s decision to stand down coincided with the closing ceremony of the Forum, providing a very special kind of energy. The fact that these uprisings were the result of civil society’s expression of discontent rather than organised by political party based movements, is a key factor of change, and one that resonates with the Social Forum approach to organised civil society.

Unfortunate and unnecessary chaos to the Forum was caused by the newly nominated Rector of the University’s decision not to make the promised rooms available for meetings. This was compounded by the knock-on effect of breakdown of other related logistics (failure to allocate rooms impacts printing a programme, doing effective booth planning for interpretation etc…). Although it was a nightmare for the Local Organising Committee, the participants took it all surprisingly in stride, and made do with much good humour. A crisis management unit worked day and night to solve the most pressing issues (renting tents, allocating existing space…) Nothing was going to stop the mobilisation… Was it prompted by fear of the strength of what organised civil society can represent, or political sabotage? At the end of the day, the result is the same.

Local languages

Language is political. West Africa is probably the region where local languages have best survived colonialism, and in Senegal most people actually speak a local language rather than French. Women, who left school early, often have minimal French. It was very important therefore for Babels to be able to train locals in basic interpretation techniques and to help facilitate interpretation for the three main local languages: Wolof, Bambara, and Poular. The logistical chaos greatly reduced the potential of this contribution, but it was nevertheless important, particularly for the meetings in the women’s tent and for the Via Campesina. Sign language was also used throughout the Forum.

Effective solidarity economy in action

The week prior to the Forum has always provided an opportunity for various groups to meet. Until now, these meetings have always used private sector services for the provision of interpretation and equipment. We successfully used ALIS equipment during this week, (Alternative Interpretation Systems), and Babels provided the interpreting for these prefora as well as for the WSF. The funding (where available) was paid into the WSF account, thereby mutualising the available human, technical and financial means. The events covered were organised by the Science and Democracy Forum, Trade Union's Forum, Habitat International Coalition, International Alliance of Inhabitants, The Forum on Health and Social Security, a seminar on Fair Trade, the Fishing Forum, as well as the Migrants Forum that was held on the island of Gorée (an island off Dakar, historically associated with slave trafficking).

The official restaurant tent catering was well organised by small local women’s groups. This catering used only local products, and directly benefited small-scale farmers and women’s groups.
There was also a convergence Assembly on Solidarity Economy and Fair Trade (the latter was particularly aimed at developing South-South relations). This brought some 100 people together, who came up with a good final declaration. (http://openfsm.net/projects/ecosol/summary)

Conclusion.

African civil society is moving towards a more joined-up movement. The World Social Forum continues to provide a space for developing connections and dialogue across borders and differences. It may not be a space for action per se, but it does provide the basis for developing actions that reach beyond the few days of the Forum. This particular Forum took place at a historic moment for Tunisia and Egypt, and will certainly leave its mark on Africa and indeed global civil society.

Judith A. Hitchman
(Original article in English and French)

The Human Economy
Keith Hart (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Jean-Louis Laville (Conservatoire national des arts et métiers) et Antonio David Cattani (Université fédérale de Rio Grande do Sul)
Published in English only
Polity Press
320 pages, 2010
http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=9780745649795

A brief review by Yvon Poirier

The global financial crisis has renewed concern about whether capitalist markets are the best way of organizing economic life. Would it not be better if we were to treat the economy as something made and remade by people themselves, rather than as an impersonal machine? The object of a human economy is the reproduction of human beings and of whatever sustains life in general. Such an economy would express human variety in its local particulars as well as the interests of all humanity.
This project is not a dream but is part of a collective effort that began a decade ago at the first World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and has gathered pace ever since. (1)

It is still necessary to explore the concepts and understand the deep issues we are facing to build a people-centred economy. People in our movements need to understand better what they are doing and the challenges they are facing. This book, published in English, is an effort to share concepts that are sometimes better known in other continents such as South America or in French speaking countries. Two of the editors, Cattani from South America and Laville from France, are well known in their respective cultures. The essays in this book are new, but they are similar to a previous book published in South America. In particular, Dicionario internacional da outra economia by Cattani, Laville and Gaiger.

(1) Description by the editor
For other descriptions or information :
http://www.ecosolux.lu/fileadmin/ripessEU.net/files/files/News/news_15102010_human_econmy_Introduction.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb8jQXRTTHE
http://richmedia.lse.ac.uk/publicLecturesAndEvents/20110127_1830_theHumanEconomy.mp3

Nyéléni Newsletter

The Number 2 of the Nyeleni Newsletter is now available online in three languages: English, Spanish and French!

This edition of the newsletter has a special on factory farming.
The Newsletter is published every two months on the www.nyeleni.org website.

The ILO (International Labour Organization) Social and Solidarity Economy Academy

The second edition of the ILO Social and Solidarity Economy Academy will be held in Montreal (Canada) from October 24th to 28th 2011.

The Academy participants will also have the opportunity to participate in FIESS (International Forum on Social Solidarity Economy) during the week prior to this event.

http://socialeconomy.itcilo.org/en/academy-2011



Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/

Special thanks to:
Paula Garuz Naval (Ireland) for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin (Brazil) for the Portuguese translation
Évéline Poirier (Canada) for the English translation

To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca

International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #75
February 1st 2011

Summary

Message from the Editorial Team

The promotion of a cooperative territorial economy to combat against poverty and social exclusion: Towards European P’ACTS
Practice and potential of a co-operative territorial economy for the future of Territorial Pacts
Four scenarios of local economic development


Message from the Editorial Team

Already a decade into the 21st century has elapsed. As all of you, we see that the global situation has not improved and we find scandalous that a billion people live on incomes of less than $1.25US per day. As all of you, we see that the global situation has not improved and we find scandalous that a billion people live on incomes of less than $1.25US per day, and that attaining the Millennium Development Goals is proving less likely in many areas.
However, the past ten years opened new perspectives. The vast majority of humanity considers it necessary to implement measures to save the planet itself. Despite the failures, or near failures, of the Copenhagen and Cancun meetings, the thrust is very strong for firm commitments in most countries.
The end of this decade illustrates the obvious failure of neo-liberal capitalism as an economic system able to meet the needs of most people. At the same time, we are very encouraged and eager to continue our efforts: we are thrilled to see the advances in building concrete alternatives that provide answers to basic needs, particularly those that combine the social economy with sustainable local development. We also recognize the considerable progress of social movements in building the global dimension of their advocacy, including the workings of World Social Forums.
It goes without saying that the challenges are enormous. Reversing the dominant trends and making these alternatives mainstream will take much effort. We will not necessarily see this outcome in our lifetime, but we hope that younger generations will realize it and live it!
It is in this perspective that we wish to continue our modest work.

Editorial Team
Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut

The promotion of a cooperative territorial economy to combat poverty and social exclusion: Towards European P’ACTS

Committee of European Regions, Brussels, November 23, 2010


This meeting was one of the follow-up events to Workshop 7 “Democratic participation and territorial anchorage” organised by Pactes Locaux at the Lux'09 Forum in April 2009, about which we keep you regularly informed. Building on the consensus achieved at this event, we are promoting the results for public debate in Europe. In the 2010 European Calendar of events, a Year for combating poverty and social exclusion was included.

This meeting was prepared by a European organizing committee composed of a dozen individuals and organizations, all volunteers, who wish to become «a permanent collective resource pool». Its composition is inclusive of languages other than French, and opened to other topics and new networks (1). This is an opportunity to hold a meeting of upstream work, widely open to Europe and the Intercontinental, with financial support of the FPH. Hosted by the Committee of Regions in Brussels, November 23, 2010 the group publicly announced the birth of P'ACTS.

The committee members chose to start from the grassroots – from their results and their analysis - to create a dialogue with citizens organized on a territorial basis, towards regional and local governments, businesses, researchers. They opened a stimulating reflection on "the global in the local." “We are all meeting to defend a cause that we have long supported, one whose solutions can be found at the local level, and that should also dare to include a global dimension. All of us have contributed at our various levels of governance, contributed in our own ways, with our complementarities, so that all people may become actors of their own development. With mutual respect, trust and perseverance, we developed significant relationships that have progressively contributed to our work being perceived as a legitimate contribution to real solutions to the crisis. We have consistently promoted that citizens themselves are the cornerstone to jointly design and build the best response to their own needs and take shared responsibility for their future. This approach means that structures and institutions need to fundamentally rethink their role and way of working. We, as organised civil society, are here to help, to talk things through and come up with answers and solutions. As they so nicely say in Quebec “Solidarity means looking people straight in the eye.” Introduction: France Joubert, president

The approach developed by peers, now recognized by those peers

Concrete achievements in duration and diversity of contexts provide answers to basic needs such as employment, food, local sustainable development, culture, finance, services, and citizenship. They all show great potential for socio-economic transformation and democratic innovations to rebuild the real economy and community life. The public spaces of debate and resources they stimulate meet head on the difficulties of reconstruction responses through cooperation on a territorial basis. The anchoring of their organizations combines multiple levels of relationships on an inter-sectorial base, horizontal and not hierarchical: regional and local jurisdictions in their lives, European by their culture and politics, intercontinental, because they are also citizens of the world. In reality, they are organized into networks that have diverse functions: geographic (employer groups, purchasing groups, cooperatives, living areas...) a place for exchanges and debates in order to link together to exert advocacy, resource centers to inform, sustain, promote, report progress in public policies, from the local to the European level. They are often linked to research organizations (academic or not) that can use levers for the interaction between action and research for the improvement of the actions. They are also areas of organization or even negotiation. This also allows for older generations anxious to pass along knowledge. In summary, they are prototypes to "take the helm" where they live, and to "stay the course on social, economic and ecological change in turbulent times" (Mike Lewis). To continue on this road, they build convergence.

P'ACTS intends to become a public space for multi-level dialogue enshrined in the European Agenda.

How to do more with less? How to open and "make do" with the new players that are the Regions and Cities, but also the actors of organized civil society? In fact, these are the major players in the real economy and the renewal of democratic life. The new Lisbon Treaty allotted this development in 2010: territorial cohesion has become the third pillar of the European project, but in practice, resistance is powerful, because power is concentrated in the Commission, and subsidiarity under the tutelage of Member States. "Multi-level governance", a concept promoted and adopted in 2010 by the Committee of European Regions is the new instrument that will allow local and regional authorities to transform things. Finally, after being abandoned for ten years, “local development” is inserted in the 2020 strategy of cohesion and whose budgets are now being decided.

The P’ACTS plan to relay and organise sustainable local development that serves a cooperative territorial economy by learning from practices they have used to build concrete responses. Considering the pertinence of the “Learning journeys”, (a tool for learning from each other via local visits) P’ACTS initiated a new European cycle for 2011 and 2012, to “ pool the expertise acquired through practice in consolidated territorial projects to increase the number of people and territories that volunteer to acquire this integrated form of territorial action”. Because re-scaling is blocked, by the idea of "the best practice" (the oasis in the desert), or procedures that lock the initiative in a cage they prevent them from taking off. A report for the European Commission underlines “the almost total lack of investment in reliable, solid mechanisms for pooling and sharing new ways of working, exporting acquired skills and know-how in other geographical and economic contexts as well as those of other countries” (2).

Sustainable local development can provide a positive road to overcoming the current crisis, if certain conditions are respected: “A strategy designed and applied to provide concrete answers to essential everyday issues: managing shared resources, activities and employment, living conditions and services all aimed at providing the perspective of a joined-up opening and solidarity between territories. A strategy aimed at providing a medium- and long-term legal framework to local and regional issues (territorial interactions and co-operation). The key principle is based on shared responsibility. Multi-level governance is the instrument. It includes organised civil society as a stakeholder in building and implementing actions, as a collective actor in the real economy and in territorial governance. A strategy based on different sources of funding in a programme framework that facilitates; the rules for implementation should be simple and transparent. The objectives for results should be defined with both quantitative indicators (how much/many) as well as qualitative indicators (how/what impacts) such as: satisfying essential needs in the real economy: the collective quality of our lives, resilience, the vitality of our democratic and cultural existence, a lesser dependence on fossil fuel as well as on imported food or foreign finance.”

An action plan leading up to the 5th Intercontinental RIPESS meeting in 2013

Scheduled for Asia in 2013, this time-frame opens opportunities and stimulates us to continue building on the results the Lux'09 workshop. At the Kuala Lumpur meeting in 2011, P'ACTS hopes to participate actively on “the territorial approach of a cooperative economy” by sharing key advances based on its case studies. The theme of this meeting is: "Social Enterprises as a vehicle for socio-economic transformation of communities."

Martine Theveniaut
Pactes Locaux

(1) http://aloe.socioeco.org/page73-projet_fr.html Here you will find a report on the meeting (in French only), and the appeal to launch P’ACTES (French and English). At the following link you will find all presentations made on November 23. http://www.pactes-locaux.org/ They can be downloaded. .
(2) Cohesion support for Local Development: Best practice and future policy options (2009-2010) DG REGIO Ref: CCI n.2009.CE.16.0.AT.081. Head of Project: Marjorie Jouen (Notre Europe), ADETEF, AEIDL City Consult

Practice and potential of a co-operative territorial economy for the future of Territorial Pacts

Presented in Brussels, November 23, 2010, by Karl Birkhölzer, economist, Technologie-Netzwerk Berlin e.V.

Four scenarios of local economic development

What do we mean with local economic development? We could distinguish between a descriptive or analytical approach and a more activity oriented or political one. From a descriptive perspective local economic development would cover all economic activities which happen at local or regional level and/or have any impact on the localities.
But far more interesting is the political perspective of local economic development: It is definitely more than just “economic development at local level”; it is a special way or certain type of economic development and different from other forms or types of economic development, and the argument here is that social enterprises play a key role in developing such strategies. To understand its specific character I will present four scenarios:

The first scenario is called “development from above”: The main actor here is the state, working top-down from central government to regional government and local authorities. In this scenario the local actors, people, enterprises as well as authorities wait for decisions as well as resources coming from above, because they believe that the state is either mainly responsible for all kinds of development or has only the power to do so. This attitude is often found in societies with centralized governments, not only in authoritarian regimes, but also in strong welfare states. This scenario is usually accompanied by a high degree of dependency and arbitrary measures. And it is finally not working anymore, if the state runs into political or economic troubles.

The second scenario is called “development from outside”: It often follows the breakdown of the first option. What they have in common is that the local actors believe they cannot do anything on their own. Therefore, outside “investors” are needed to bring in the necessary resources, especially money. In all parts of the so-called “underdeveloped” world everybody is desperately looking for investors. I wonder where these strange animals live and how to attract them. All I can see is a disastrous competition between communities, regions and countries where only the investor benefits from an inevitable dumping process with low wages, property prices, tax reductions and so on. Furthermore, communities which try hard sometimes spend their last available resources in dubious infrastructural programmes which should attract investments like golf courses, luxury hotels and conference centres, industrial sites and office space, business development centres and so on. And like in any other competition the winners are always only a happy few, the majority are losers. I am not arguing against infrastructural programmes as such, but there is definitely something wrong, if they are only designed for the needs of outsiders. And even in case of success the objectives of the investor might not be the same as the community ones’. Financial investments of this type are nowadays highly dynamic and flexible so that they can easily move from one place to the next, if they can find better conditions or if plans have changed. From the view point of “sustainability” attracting investors from outside is a very risky business.

The third scenario could be called “wait and see”: The local actors remain more or less passive waiting for things to come. Some might look at it as a quasi natural process of selection, some might have resigned as a result of the failures of option one and two. The traditional “solution” in this scenario is migration. In fact, this is the most popular option, although it becomes more and more difficult to find places to go, not only because of political restrictions, but also for economic reasons, because the islands of prosperity around the world become smaller and smaller in size and numbers.

The final scenario I would call “development from within”: As option number one is dominated by the state, number two by private investment and number three by fatalism, in this scenario the local actors, the people themselves play the key role. And here we are at the heart of Local Economic Development: It starts when people realize that neither the state nor the market economy serve their needs or solve their problems, and if they are unwilling or unable to leave their homes. In this situation people embark (usually after a period of not successful protesting or campaigning) on strategies of economic self-help which often lead to the foundation of new types of (social) enterprises.

One of the pioneers of local economic development, Sam Aaronovitch from the Local Economy Policy Unit in London (Aaronovitch 1996; Birkhölzer 1999) put it in a nutshell: “There is no escape from self-help!”
After outlining the failures which are brought on by the first three scenarios, Karl Birkölzer presents with supporting examples, the components of what makes the success of “development from within”: responding to unmet needs is to rediscover that one is never better helped than by the confidence one places on one’s own capabilities, in cooperation with others. This is what generates and regenerates the capital. First it is confidence that recreates local economic cycles. “One of the most disastrous attitudes is if people believe, they cannot do anything without access to money. This leads either to the “wait and see” scenario or to the dependency on donors which might have their own ideas about what their money is for. But localities or areas of economic crisis are usually characterized by the lack of it (social capital)... the most important resources are the capacity of the local people, its knowledge and abilities. Therefore… the local economic development process has to start with at the first glance non-economic activities which are centred around community building and community development.”

Karl Birkhölzer Technologie-Netzwerk Berlin E.V.

www.technet-berlin.de
http://www.pactes-locaux.org/

Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/
Special thanks to:
Paula Garuz Naval (Ireland) for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin (Brazil) for the Portuguese translation
Évéline Poirier (Canada) for the English translation

To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca

International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #74
December 1st 2010

Summary

Message from the Editorial Team
Nekasarea: a Basque network serving the everyday struggle for Food Sovereignty

New web sites
International Network for the Promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy (RIPESS)
International Forum on the Social and Solidarity Economy (FIESS)


Message from the editorial team
In this issue we are happy to publish an article that was sent to us by the URGENCI Secretary General Jocelyn Parot.
The Basque Nekasarea network is important both in terms of its vision and its scope that reaches well beyond community supported agriculture (CSA); it is a good example of how CSA can be integrated into the broader development of the community itself. In this sense, it is a beautiful demonstration of sustainable local development.
As our next issue is scheduled for February 1st 2011, we would like to send our readers our best wishes for the New Year.

The Editorial Team
Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut

Nekasarea: a Basque network serving the everyday struggle for Food Sovereignty

Nekasarea is a network of organized producers and consumers that have operated in the Biscaye Province of the Spanish Basque country for the last two years. The Farmers’ Union Ehne-Biscaye, a founding member of La Via Campesina in 1996, has recently devoted a lot of time and effort to the implementation of initiatives of partnership and short-chain supplies in food production and distribution. These initiatives are inspired by the French AMAP (Community Supported Agriculture), as well as other similar experiences. In 2010, the Basque network already includes nearly a hundred farmers who organize their production and sell directly to consumers.

The Ehne Union is an historical actor of the social and political landscape at local level. Initiated during the 1970s the struggle to defend the price of the milk rapidly led it become the expression of the farmers’ fight against Francoism, and for the democratisation of society. In recent years it has become the first Farmers Union of the Biscaye province with more that 1000 members (affiliados), which represents a 60% rate of unionisation of the farmers of the region. The Union staff team is composed of ten employees, ranging from the communication team to the network management team. The employees are in charge of the operating systems for direct sales; these are organised on a partnership basis. There is an ongoing negotiation between farmers of the Union and the groups of activist consumers on the economic and social conditions, as well as the organisation of the logistics. Currently, there are about thirty consumer groups, all of whom are committed to the process and distribution througout Biscaye, but mostly in the capital, Bilbao, and its surroundings.

Like all tried and tested recipes, that of Nekasarea is simple. But it requires some experience to get things right. The network is under the wing of a Union which is anchored in 40 years of history of farmers’ struggles. It also requires the right ingredients, like those of the local land, varied as those found in the Zeanuri grocery store. And patience, as demonstrated by the project leaders as they follow training courses carried out tirelessly week after week.

1. Building an alternative aimed at restoring the true meaning of exchange
Through the Nekasarea network, Ehne aims to provide constructive solutions to clearly identified problems, through action rather than by taking a critical stance or protesting.

The Network’s values

The network is built on values that clearly resemble those of the CSA and AMAP models. The notion of shared risk is thus central, as the consumers pay for their orders when they are placed (even if it is a monthly payment), and they commit for the whole year. The price of each “basket” prepared by the network that includes the produce from several producers can be fairly expensive (up to 200 Euros per family per month for a complete basket). The baskets are delivered on a weekly basis.
The annual commitment is based on a basket that has a constant content. This helps avoid planning difficulties. Each family usually begins with a trial period of three months before committing for the whole year. The important development of Nekasarea over these two years can also be explained by a local tradition that is very ingrained. Gastronomes, local food activists and Farmers’ Unions regularly gather in “gastronomic dining clubs” of which there are many in each town in the region (there were four in the town of Durango alone). These clubs support old, local traditions.

Their first objective is to provide a possibility to exchange and create social links around a meal prepared from local products. Social links and exchange: these two terms were central to all the meetings we had. They are twin concepts that guide the actions of the Ehne Union orientation of information and training, even if as Umrafu explained to us, the golden rule of Farmers’ Union is that “the more you talk, the more enemies you have, and the more efficient you are, the more threats you receive”.
Nekasarea, a pedagogical tool aimed at serving the movement
The members have considered it is necessary to reach beyond to the experience of direct sales, and include a new dimension by making Nekasarea a pedagogic tool that serves the food sovereignty movement.
One of the key assets of this kind of trade-union based local and solidarity partnership system is that it guarantees ongoing consistency between local actions and the global dimension. The considerable work that has been done in the fields of communication and training linked to global evolution has led to an overall homogeneity among the CSA actors. This means that the new Basque partnership model has avoided becoming a kind of club for the wealthy. The network reaches beyond the “just between friends” and reaches out to society. It reaches beyond a small in-group of the initiated, to become part not only of the local community but of society as a whole.

The technical staff working in Ehne is dedicated and able to carry out training as well as being leaders. Isa is not only the leader of the Nekasarea network but also a consumer in the empowered consumer cooperative in Vittoria. As such, she manages a cooperative bar-restaurant project that follows local peasant agriculture criteria and that employs 6 people. This bar-restaurant aims to show that ecological actions are not limited exclusively to the elite but that all segments of society can organize to build alternative chains that are socially more viable.

2. Other actors of alternative chains: the case of the Zeanuri grocery store

Zeanuri is a village that holds a pleasant surprise: the centre of this little town that curls into the Pyrenees is very busy around the local grocery store. The existence of this grocery store in the village centre is a good example of a local project. It sells mainly local products, and operates through cooperation between the local authorities, local NGOs and producers. The Ehne trade union doesn’t play a central role in this project, but it has nevertheless played an essential supporting role.
The village grocery store at the heart of the revitalization of a rural project zone.

Several years ago, with the inevitable rural exodus, the municipal authorities decided to launch a competition to renew the life of this small mountain village and its surroundings.

The grocery-bar-restaurant project was launched by a young woman who is very aware of the local agricultural issues as she comes from a family of local farmers. When her father died, her brothers chose to keep all the cows in the mountains out of their love for the work more than for profits’ sake. She thought up the grocery as a direct sales’ system and a community space. The grocery store is based on a direct sales’ system: two shepherds provide ewe’s mild cheese; a vegetable producer sells her organic production. The owner herself works on her farm where she grows food mainly for her own consumption, selling any surplus in the shop. Initially Irena did everything by herself: taking care of the livestock, the daily management of the shop and the farm, selling in the shop and baking the bread. She then transmitted her knowledge to others and now she is increasingly handing on the work. Eight people are involved in the kitchen and behind the bar.

This grocery store is first and foremost a community centred space: every day works to the hourly rhythm of different activities. It is a very lively space where people gather, eat and stay in touch.

The coordinating role of Nekasarea

The Nekasarea network plays a coordinating role. It helps bring producers and the grocery store together. It also allows the members to discuss the grocery project with those who are more aware of the importance of consuming locally. This does not involve all of the inhabitants of the village who usually shop in supermarkets instead of coming into the centre of the village, says the owner. The grocery store is actually the ideal place to discuss social issues, especially those that are food-related.

CONCLUSION

Nekasarea demonstrates the social force of change that becomes possible through coherent social organization. It provides the possibility for genuine local development, the preservation of the agricultural and cultural heritage and the realization of collective projects of “better living together”.
Jocelyn Parot
www.urgenci.net
Baserribizia, the monthly network newsletter,
in Spanish and Basque, is available at:
http://www.baserribizia.info/
Info :
http://blog.urgenci.net/?p=461 (FR only)
http://blog.urgenci.net/?p=467 (FR only)
http://blog.urgenci.net/?p=470 (ENG only)
http://blog.urgenci.net/?p=474 (ENG only)


New web sites
International Network for the Promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy (RIPESS)
RIPESS annonces that it now has a new website.
http://ripess.org/
International Forum on the Social and Solidarity Economy (FIESS)
This is the website for the meeting that will be held in Montreal 2011, October 17 to 20 under the theme «Government and Civil Socity».
http:/www.fiess2011.org

Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/

Special thanks to:
Brunilda Rafael (France) for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin (Brazil) for the Portuguese translation
Évéline Poirier (Canada) for proof-reading English and French versions

To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca

International Newsletter on Sustainable Local Development
Newsletter #73
November 1st 2010

Summary

Message from the Editorial Team

2009 Nobel Prize for Economics awarded to Elinor Ostrom for her work on “Governing the Commons” (1

Wind of (institutional) change

Message from the editorial team

Awarding the 2009 Nobel Prize for economy to the political scientist, Elinor Osrom is most encouraging and important, as it reinforces the main approach that we try to promote in our Newsletter. Martine helps us to explore the concept of “commons”. Yvon has been in a position to witness the community management of the Nepalese forest, which Ostrom quotes as an example, as a genuine success in terms of the preservation of the biosphere, while at the same time allowing local people to improve their living conditions.

As already mentioned in previous issues, the survival and promotion of small-scale local family farming is definitely a solution for feeding people and overcoming poverty for the majority of the poorest inhabitants of our world. Just to remind you, 70% of the one billion people who live in extreme poverty live in rural areas. Judith shares the positive developments within the Food and Agriculture Organisation agency of the United Nations (FAO).

The Editorial Team
Judith Hitchman
Yvon Poirier
Martine Theveniaut

2009 Nobel Prize for Economics awarded to Elinor Ostrom for her work on “Governing the Commons” (1)

This approach, which is central to all of Elinor Ostrom’s research is not mainstream, to say the least, or on the radar of the economists from the Chicago School of Economics (world leaders with the most Nobel Economics Prizes!). It may even be considered marginal according to the article by the renowned Garrett Hardin “The Tragedy of the Commons” (2) that deals with the dominant neo-classical paradigm!

The current pressure on natural resource management problems places the research of this 76 year-old woman at the heart of everyday preoccupations. Essentially her book examines the managing of common pool resources (CPRs), and shows that the way collective action operates does not follow the usual assumptions of economics (rationality and perfect information of the actors). In reality, actors make more appropriate choices in terms of collective gain, than those related to the predictions of rational choice theory. This is explained partly by the importance of face-to-face or personal relationships, which encourage mutual commitment, as well as by the actors’ capacity to innovate or adapt which allows them to increase collective gain by modifying some of the rules.

Her reflection has constantly evolved since the 60s, based on supporting evidence; it aims to escape the intellectual trap of the tragedy of the commons: starting with her thesis on water management in Southern California (1963), inshore fisheries in Turkey, irrigation systems in Spain and the Philippines, and more recently, the exploitation of forests in Nepal (3). Elinor Ostrom and Amy Poteete have thus shown that regulation of the use of forests by local communities is strongly linked to
 the attitude of local people vis-à-vis the forest resource;
 the size of the forest, as it must be monitored;
 the attitude of government agencies, which should not impede local efforts and provide institutions to facilitate the resolution of conflicts;
 the attitude of political power towards lobby groups with antagonistic interests to the modes of forestry management;
 the nature and size of interest groups (small sizes with homogeneous interests or large sizes with different interests).

Contrary to intuitive judgments, direct management by the communities does not always guarantee the preservation of the resource, but this type of institutional arrangement has a high probability of leading to sustainable management of forests.

“Instead of presuming that optimal institutional solutions can be designed easily and imposed at low cost by external authorities, I (Elinor Ostrom) argue that “getting the institutions right” is a difficult, time-consuming, conflict-invoking process. It is a process that requires reliable information about time and place variables as well as broad repertoire of culturally acceptable rules.”(4) “What is missing from the policy analyst’s tool kit – and from the set of accepted, well-developed theories of human organization – is an adequately specified theory of collective action whereby a group of principals can organize themselves voluntarily to retain the residuals of their own efforts.” (5)

“Examples of self-organized enterprises abound… But until a theoretical explanation – based on human choice – for self-organized and self-governed enterprises is fully developed and accepted, major policy decisions will continue to be undertaken with a presumption that individuals cannot organize themselves and always need to be organized by external authorities.” (6)

New collective regulations are possible.

To reduce the gap between current theories of collective action and empirical examples, “what is needed … is a somewhat different orientation toward the theoretical endeavor related to policy analysis.”(7) Rather than relying on the choices of individuals assumed to be capable of maximizing short-term but not long-term results, who are trapped in their dilemma and directed to governments as users of their programs, when in fact the decisions are taken with an idealized vision of the market or state. The change of vision which her analysis opens, gives consistency to the initiatives of individuals and their collective social inventions as “users … struggling to find workable and equitable solutions to difficult problems within arenas provided by courts, by legislative bodies, and by local authorities.”(8) This theory has now emerged from marginality. It is widely backed by empirical data. It opens a legitimate path that practitioners can implement. In the long term, a framework for documentation, the analysis and lessons learnt are needed to describe the added value of “good governance”, equipping, evaluating and anticipating the pursuit of a shared responsibility to all the territories. The local level needs to be rehabilitated to be valued at global level. The path which we will continue to follow consists of mutualizing the results of “I illustrate, I discuss, I propose”(9). We can walk this road with increased confidence. It is a safer way than “I know what’s best, therefore I’ll tell you what to do and you do it.” (10)

Martine Theveniaut
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elinor_Ostrom
http://www.elinorostrom.com/
http://shesc.asu.edu/ostrom

1. Ostrom, Elinor, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge University Press, 1990.
2. Science, December 13, 1968, number 162, pp 1243-1268.
3. Poteete A.R., Jansen M.A, Ostrom E., Working Together: Collective Action, the Commons, and Multiple Methods in Practice, Princeton U. Press, 2010
4. Ostrom, Elinor, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 14
5. Ostrom, Elinor, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 24-25
6. Ostrom, Elinor, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 25
7. Ostrom, Elinor, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 191
8. Ostrom, Elinor, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action, Cambridge University Press, 1990, p. 216
9. This expression is specific to the format of the Lux’09 meetings, which we discussed in a previous issue.
10. Expression used by France Joubert, president of Pactes Locaux.

Wind of (institutional) change

With over 1 billion hungry people in the world, and 10,000 children dying daily of hunger-related illness, the question of what forms of local development can best feed people in a sustainable manner is one of the core issues the world needs to address.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is the dedicated United Nations Agency that has responsibility for this question. Until one year ago, the Committee for Food Security (CSF), one of the key bodies within the FAO, was limited exclusively to governmental representatives. The reform that was enacted in 2009, gives civil society as well as major businesses a consultative say in matters of food security. The ultimate say, through voting rights, remains with the governments.

The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing “when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life”(1).

This is precisely where the debate between food sovereignty and food security is situated. The latter does not necessarily take things like the “green revolution” based on GMO-modified seeds, or Economic Partnerships Agreements (EPAs) with the ACP (Africa, Caribbean & Pacific) countries into account. The green revolution has a disastrous effect on small-scale farmers (who feed most of the world’s population), on as well as agricultural workers, nomadic pastoralists and landless rural populations; it pushes them off their lands and into the cities. Their traditional community-based agriculture, seed exchange and local food systems sit poorly with profit-hungry multinationals and neo-liberal governments. The system of EPAs also allows imports that are nothing but dumping of subsided factory-farm products that wipe out local agriculture and processing in many of the APC countries, again with the same results as the green revolution, pushing people off their land so that they can no longer feed either themselves or others.

This is why the concept of food sovereignty is a more far-reaching politically embedded concept. It is defined as follows: “Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems. It puts those who produce, distribute and consume food at the heart of food systems and policies rather than the demands of markets and corporations. It defends the interests and inclusion of the next generation. It offers a strategy to resist and dismantle the current corporate trade and food regime, and directions for food, farming, pastoral and fisheries systems determined by local producers. Food sovereignty prioritises local and national economies and markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven agriculture, artisanal - fishing, pastoralist-led grazing, and food production, distribution and consumption based on environmental, social and economic sustainability. Food sovereignty promotes transparent trade that guarantees just income to all peoples and the rights of consumers to control their food and nutrition. It ensures that the rights to use and manage our lands, territories, waters, seeds, livestock and biodiversity are in the hands of those of us who produce food. Food sovereignty implies new social relations free of oppression and inequality between men and women, peoples, racial groups, social classes and generations”(2).

This is where the extraordinary work of a range of civil society organisations has come together through the IPC (International Planning Committee for Food Sovereignty)(3) and their remarkable work of lobbying the FAO. They have been at the core of working to develop the Civil Society Mechanism for the Civil Society Organisations that wish to have their voices heard in the reformed CSF (Committee for Food Security) of the FAO(4).

After a long year spent working on the details, a three-day meeting of Civil Society organisations took place in Rome last week (8th-10th October), organised by the IPC, and officially funded by those member states of the CSF that supported the reform. Three hard long days’ work it was too, to prepare for the first meeting of the reformed CSF that took place in Rome the following week. The first echoes that have filtered down are of how surprised most States were by the highly organised positions of civil society, their good sense and use that they made of the allotted slots.

So a wind of change is blowing in the FAO. Perhaps not enough to change as much or as fast as many would like, given the strength of the multinational corporations and those States that support an industrial profit-based approach to agriculture and food security that is neither local nor sustainable. But it is nevertheless a significant step forward for the voice of the real solutions to feeding the world and preserving a sustainable environment and local development.
Judith Hitchman
1.http://www.who.int/trade/glossary/story028/en/
2.http://www.nyeleni.org/
3.http://www.foodsovereignty.org/new/
4.http://www.fao.org/cfs/cfs-home/en/


Our Newsletters are available on the WEB:
http://local-development.blogspot.com/
www.apreis.org/

Special thanks to:
Paula Garuz Naval (Ireland) for the Spanish translation
Michel Colin (Brazil) for the Portuguese translation
Évéline Poirier (Canada) for proof-reading English and French versions

To contact us (for information, feedback, to subscribe or unsubscribe):
Yvon Poirier ypoirier@videotron.ca