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Context, Objectives, Principles

A double-edged globalisation

The past thirty years have seen the development of unprecedented economic liberalisation, whose implications and effects on societies are substantial, sometimes beneficial, sometimes tragic and often double-edged:

• The strong development of financial, material and human exchanges has enabled certain regions and countries to enter economic growth, but also carved out inequalities between social categories, countries and regions.
• A new, international division of labour is emerging. Most economic sectors face changes that can often be quite radical, with a major impact on the companies, jobs, living conditions in the territories where they occur.
• For the first time in the history of mankind, the massive impact of human activity on the biosphere is putting the whole planet at risk.
• In numerous countries, millions of increas¬ingly educated young people constitute a remarkable potential for development still left untapped.

New modes of governance

It is not inevitable that economic and social instability, inequality and poverty will only get worse. Fair trade, socially responsible investment funds, international social norms, responsible consuming, corporate social responsibility... In many places, new practices give shape to alternative approaches of globalisation.

Many agree that new modes of governance and regulation must be implemented on a global scale. These mechanisms concern the monetary system, the management of energy and raw materials resources, capital markets, the regulation of competition and the environmental impact of ways of life and modes of production. It is urgent to systematically integrate social and environmental costs into economic decisions. In this context, companies, including all their stakeholders (employees, shareholders, customers, partners…) are a key element of the global system.

Many decisions are in the hands of policymakers, corporate executives, opinion leaders, trade union heads, organisers of civil society movements, educators, consumers and investors. It is through the concerted initiative of all these actors that evolutions will be made possible.

Mobilisation at local level

Regions and urban areas are places of community living, where residents and organisations interact on a daily basis and, therefore, where the economic issues cannot be separated from social ones. They are the natural place for building alliances around innovative projects. Regions and major urban areas have an increasingly important role and growing responsibilities in the global debate on issues surrounding economic development, the environment and life in society.

A place for exchange and capitalisation

Face with the scope of the challenges to be met, the Forum for a Responsible Globalisation aims at creating a space where proposals can be developed and initia¬tives implemented for new modes of governance and regulation. It banks on dialogue and puts its confidence in shared creativity. By relying on a wide array of experiences and reflections, the Forum strives to loosen the stranglehold of dominant ways of thinking and to encourage and support transversal alliances between companies, NGOs, trade unions and local authorities with the aim of building a new future for the planet.

The meeting to be held in October 2006 is a starting point. The Forum for a Responsible Globalisation will be an ongoing laboratory for initiatives and experiments. It will build an enduring meeting place for various actors. It aims at fostering the emergence of initiatives, to guide their development and draw lessons from them. The Forum will also network with other initiatives and processes: the Helsinki Process, Reinventing Globalisation, the World Social Forum and so on.

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