The Past Editions of the World Social Agenda



The World Social Agenda represents the evolution of two preceding events under the name "World Social Forum" which took place in Padua in April 2000 and in May 2001. In particular, while those initiatives where intended to stimulate reflection on alternatives to dominating economic models, the World Social Agenda focuses on concrete proposals to translate international campaigns and action plans into policies with a bottom-up approach, encouraging partnership between civil society organisations and local and regional authorities.

The World Social Forum was born following the echo of the Seattle (USA 1999) and Davos (Switzerland 2000) events, as an opportunity to discuss the themes of the globalisation from a social perspective, presenting alternative views to those of the World Economic Forum in Davos.

First Edition, Padua, April 2000

The first World Social Forum was held in Padua in April 2000 with remarkable speakers such as Susan George, Ann Pettifor, Anuradha Vittachi, Muhammad Yunus, Bill Pelcke among others. The international conferences dealt with five major themes:

1. "Armed banks: financial strategies and global development", on the analysis of banking and ethical finance, micro-credit and ethical funds.
2. "More TV, less culture: mass media, new technologies and digital divide" on the role of mass media and the burning problem of the digital divide.
3. "Globalisation's DNA: new issues on civil society's agenda after Seattle and Davos” on the “Seattle movement" and on the resistance of international civil society to globalisation without rules.
4. "To eradicate poverty: debt and unfair international relationships" on cancelling the international debt of poor countries.
5. "To fire the executioner: justice and death penalty abolition" on the universal interruption of the executions.

Second Edition, Padua, May 2001

It linked and aimed at integrating its international debate with the impressive experience of the Porto Alegre Social Forum (Brazil, January 2001). Again, the conferences opened with remarkable speakers such as Euclides Andrè Mance, Bijou Nzirirane, Fatos Lubonja, Huidin Hamadzic, Diana Culi among others. The international conferences dealt with three major themes:

1. "Extending the Network: Civil Society after Porto Alegre”, on an analysis of the experience of the "participative management” effectively experienced in Porto Alegre and on the slogan launched in Porto Alegre that another world is possible.
2. "Co-operating within the conflict: from decentralised international co-operation to peace initiatives” on the analysis of decentralised co-operation and popular diplomacy.
3. "Designing Europe: the Balkans between integration and disintegration" on the tragedies of the 90's and the Balkan countries with the aim to trace a possible route of economic, social, environmental and democratic reconstruction.

Third edition, Padua and Trento, May 2002

In Trento it gathered a group of forty representatives from Italian and Colombian local authorities for a training course on participatory budget and local development indicators, featuring a variety of speakers from all over the world (Brazil, Ecuador, Camerun, France, Spain, UK). In Padua, the WSA programme included three main conferences and an equal number of workshops addressing the issues of:

1. "The Right to Participate”, featuring R. Bissio (Social watch), N. Bullard (Focus on the Global South), I. Charao (Gov. of Rio Grande do Sul)
2. "Discussing sustainable development", featuring Y. Cabannes (UN - LA PGU), R. Petrella (Water Contract), T. Perna (Cric), L. Zarate (HIC)
3. "Nonviolence and present conflicts", featuring J. Oberg (TFF), P. Patfoort (Belgium), C. Satha Anand (Thailand), Alex Zanotelli and Albino Bizzotto (Action for Peace)