HIGHLIGHTS

International Interfaith Investment Group (3IG) Special Initiative Conference of Religious Money Managers
New York, New York
June 18-20, 2002

A special, exclusive meeting of faith leaders who manage funds for faith communities, investment specialists, and environmental professionals met in New York at the Council on Foreign Relations to formally establish the International Interfaith Investment Group (3IG) after many years of ongoing development and planning.

The conference moved through a series of presentations and discussions to adopt a formal agreement to establish the 3IG; appointed a Continuing Committee that ARC and its partnering organizations will service; designed the necessary legal and financial structures; and continued to discuss new potential members.

Please click here to see the 3IG Meeting Summary Report.

It is anticipated that a further meeting in the Fall of 2003 or early Spring of 2004 will be convened during which the formal legal and financial structures will be adopted. After this second meeting, some six to nine months of follow-up will be necessary for the instruments and organization to be fully realized, culminating in the formal launch of 3IG in late 2004/early 2005. 3IG is currently being supported by the Mott Foundation, Citibank, the Pilkington Foundation with the organizing and financial support from the World Wildlife Fund UK, Medley Global Advisors and the State of the World Forum.

Learning Policy Action Group Steering Committee Retreat
Wasan Island, Ontario
July 6-10, 2002

A group picture of the retreat participants.

The Steering Committee of the Policy Action Group on Learning (PAGL), developed by Commissioner Paul Cappon and colleagues, will meet at the Breuninger Foundation estate on Wasan Island, in the Muskoka Lakes of Ontario, Canada, on July 6 - 10, 2002.

This first gathering will bring together 10-15 members of the PAGL Steering Committee to explore and develop strategies to broaden the work on seven selected themes and two focus groups. The meeting will also be a key step in the process of producing implementable recommendations for learning on a global basis.
The PAGL seeks to critically review issues surrounding education and learning, as well as the impact of the forces of globalization.

The following seven broad issue areas have been proposed for review:

1) The opportunities, challenges and problems associated with the use of information and communications technologies;

2) The articulation of the roles and areas of prime involvement for the private sector in traditional and non-traditional learning;

3) The examination of the roles, mandates and operating philosophies of major multi-lateral bodies within the UN system and among the Bretton Woods organizations, among others, to ascertain areas of common purpose, divergence, overlap and duplication; and to identify ways of raising the profile of education and learning in general on their respective agendas;

4) The review of issues related to the relationship between learning and cultural preservation and diversity, multiculturalism, linguistic preservation and the promotion of basic human rights throughout all aspects of learning;

5) The review of the dichotomy between learning for sustainable development and learning as an individual intellectual pursuit;

6) The assessment of the opportunities and challenges surrounding life-long learning, the inter-relationship between formal and non-formal ways of learning, new approaches to formal learning that reflect varying social and economic conditions and the roles that formal and non-formal learning can play in combating poverty;

7) The review of the intellectual and resource requirements of the agents of the transmission of knowledge (teachers, etc), including the means by which various stakeholders can assess the results of their actions and interventions.c In addition to these seven issue areas, transverse considerations such as gender equality, the impact of the transformation of education and learning systems on LDCs and on Africa in particular, and the role that youth themselves can play in shaping new solutions will also be taken into account.

For more pictures please click here.

To view an Executive Summary: Globalization and Learning - Putting Humanity First!, an Introductory Discussion Paper of The Policy Action Group on Learning, please click here.

Second Working Meeting of the Water Security Policy Action Group
Vancouver, British Columbia
May 22, 2002

The Policy Action Group on Water Security, in development during March, April, and May 2002, is proceeding under the direction of Co-Chair Lloyd Axworthy, Executive Director of the Liu Centre for the Study of Global Issues at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The project is jointly sponsored by the Liu Centre and State of the World Forum as an input to the Commission on Globalisation.

An initial Draft Paper titled "Water Security" was developed with the input of several water specialists, including Oscar Olivera who visited the Liu Centre during March. This paper provided an outline for the terms of reference, composition, and responsibilities of the Water Policy Action Group and suggested several areas that could be addressed in this project. On April 10, Dr. Axworthy chaired a first planning meeting during which nine water specialists from North America provided guidance about the areas in which this Policy Action Group could usefully contribute new insights.

Critical competing interests for water were discussed, including rural vs urban needs, domestic vs agricultural vs other uses, affordability vs requisite incentives to attract investment capital, and the public good vs commodification of the resource. In tackling any of these challenges, it was agreed that the appropriate unit of analysis to be used in the research would be the "watershed".

The results of this consultative process led to the revision of the Draft Paper and its subsequent distribution to a wider, more geographically balance audience for refinement. Based on this Revised Draft Paper, a second planning meeting was held on May 21, again at the Liu Centre, in which 17 water specialists participated. The discussion focused on the multi-stakeholder nature required by the work, the value-add that could result from this research, the criteria for target watersheds, and the composition of the advisory and research teams that would proceed.

From this process, a funding proposal is being developed to: (1) collect available research on best practices in watershed management; (2) apply these lessons to the study of five selected watersheds in various parts of the world to improve the resource management capability of those areas; and (3) in selected watershed areas, build a coalition of community groups that could work with local governance institutions to insure sustainable management practices are followed.

During June and July, the proposal will be reviewed by specialists from both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and a geographically diverse advisory group will be assembled. Funding is currently being sought in both Europe and the North America. A report will be prepared for the 2002 December Commissioner meeting in Mexico City and the initial results of the work will be discussed at the World Water Forum in Kyoto in 2003.

New Threats Policy Action Group Planning Meeting
Washington, DC - April 4 - 5, 2002

The planning meeting for the New Threats and Integrated Security Policy Action Group was convened at the Brookings Institution. The meeting was chaired by Gordon Smith, Executive Director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria, Canada.

Participants for the meeting, drawn primarily from the Washington DC area, included: Ruth David of Analytic Services Inc. (ANSER), Harriet Fletcher of the Prince of Wales International Business Leaders Forum, Shep Forman of the Center on International Cooperation, Randy Forsberg of the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies, John Gannon of Intellibridge, Jerome Glenn of the Millennium Project American Council/United Nations University, Peggy Hamburg of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, Jim Hickman from State of the World Forum, Richard Hodapp from The Mapping Alliance, Heather Hurlburt from the International Crisis Group, Chris Kelly of Booz Allen Hamilton, Michael Levett from Citizen's Democracy Corps, Alistair Millar from the Fourth Freedom Forum, Linda Millis from Business Executives for National Security (BENS), Tom Rautenberg from the State of the World Forum, Alison Sander of Boston Consulting Group, John Sewell of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Jim Steinberg of the Brookings Institution and Steve Trevino from Booz Allen Hamilton.

Over the course of the day, the discussion focused mainly on the root cause of terrorism, which set the background and the context for discussions as to best strategies with which to respond to the new threats environment. Noting that the broadening threat environment was increasingly complex and global in nature, participants discussed probable socio-cultural, economic and political conditions that give rise to terrorist “mentalities” and motivate terrorist activities.

The proposal for this PAG will be further refined over the coming months to incorporate the discussion in Washington and other suggestions and input.

For a report of this meeting, click here.

G8/Africa Special Initiative Inaugural Meeting
Bellagio, Italy - April 15 - 19, 2002

The first phase of the G8/Africa Special Initiative was centered on the “Emerging Global Challenges” conference convened at the Rockefeller Foundation retreat center in Bellagio, Italy April 15-19, 2002. The meeting brought together over 20 individuals, including members of the Canadian G-8 Summit team, representatives from donor agencies, noted experts on the various initiatives, and leading African personalities involved with the NEPAD process, to finalize the project design.

The second phase of this project will be to select, on a “Request for Proposal” (RFP) competitive basis, the NEPAD initiatives that would most benefit from a strategic mapping exercise, and provide extensive visibility for the NEPAD agenda, while also advancing long-term sustainable development priorities. It is currently planned to commission 15 proposals on topics drawn from the NEPAD document’s list of program actions and initiatives. The topics will also be consistent with the themes of the Genoa G8 Summit “Action Plan for Africa.

The final phase of the project will be draft each of the selected initiatives into a blueprint that maps specific approaches, actors, policies, and plans. The resulting papers will be comprehensive proposals that include critical analysis of the current situation in the sector and geographic region, practical and cost-effective approaches to attain the objectives, and appropriate long-term operational plans to maximize effectiveness.
It is anticipated that several of the detailed concrete proposals will emerge that could become part of the Action Plan for Africa to be mandated at Kananaskis and revisited at the 2003 G8 Summit in France. The Mott Foundation is a lead sponsor of this project.

For a pdf. report of this meeting, please click here.

GEM Policy Action Group Meeting
New York, NY - April 17 - 18, 2002

Thirty-two international environmental governance and development experts from fifteen nations took part in the inaugural meeting of the Global Environmental Mechanism (GEM) Policy Action Group on April 17-18, 2002 convened at the Surdna Foundation in New York and sponsored by the State of the World Forum and the Johnson Family Foundation. Key discussion topics included goals and challenges, mechanisms for global environmental governance, and pressure points for advancing reform. The group also began to lay out an analytical and strategic agenda, as well as an action plan, for the GEM Policy Action Group.

Participants identified four major areas where sustained analysis and policy outreach are most necessary:

1) Improvement of the collection and dissemination of environmental information;

2) Strengthening of environmental technology transfer between the North and South and throughout the world;

3) Establishment of new financing sources and mechanisms to fund sustainable development and environmental protection throughout the world;

4) Creation of an international forum – physical and/or virtual – to serve as a space for global environmental norm-setting, negotiations, and bargaining.

In working on these four potential streams of reform, the group plans to devote a good deal of energy to building a constituency for the notion of strengthened global environmental governance. In the short term, the Johannesburg Summit will provide a focus for the GEM Group effort, where a number of concrete and feasible initiatives will be put forward for consideration and lobby.

For a report of this meeting, please click here.

Grasping Globalisation Conference: A Canadian National Youth Conference and Youth Declaration on Globalisation
Toronto, Ontario, Canada - February 27-March 3, 2002

Kids Can Free the Children, in collaboration with the Canadian International Development Agency and the State of the World Forum, convened the second in a series of five conferences to engage and empower Canadian Youth in the globalisation debate. Over 50 youth, ages 12-20 years, gathered from across
Canada at the Shadow Lake Retreat Center outside of Toronto, Ontario to explore the challenges of life in a globalised world.

Through seminars, workshops, and debates, students examined issues such as technology, the media, sustainable development, the environment, poverty, education, consumerism, and armed conflict. Speakers from around the world including professors, professionals, representatives from international organizations, and a family of refugees from Sierre Lione, highlighted the central political, economic and cultural complexities of globalisation. Two Commissioners of the Commission on Globalisation, Dr. Paul Cappon, Director General, Ministers of Education, Canada and Craig Kielburger, Founder, Kids Can Free the Children, introduced students to the work of the Commission. The conference concluded in youth meetings around the Commission’s Policy
Action Groups. After discussing questions of poverty, enterprise, education, security and the environment, participants presented thoughtful youth perspectives and plans of actions for each issue. Students made commitments to take local actions in their own communities as a means of working towards a more just and equitable world, and subsequently prepared a Youth Declaration on Globalisation.

To view this Declaration, please click here.

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