Global Policy Forum (lead organizer) Social Watch, Third World Network, Development Alternative with Women for a New Era (DAWN), Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, terre des hommes, Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation

As a response to the multiple global crises, the Reflection Group will launch a comprehensive report that highlights the need for fundamental changes, in particular:



? Changes in fiscal and regulatory policies (at national and international levels) in order to overcome social inequalities and the degradation of nature and to strengthen sustainable economies.

? Changes in institutions and governance mechanisms (at national and international levels).

? Changes in the mindset, the guiding concepts, goals and indicators of development and societal progress.



At the side event prominent members of the Reflection Group will present key findings and policy recommendations of this report.

In November 2010, several civil society groups, networks and foundations, including Social Watch, Third World Network, DAWN, the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, Global Policy Forum, terre des hommes, and the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation, launched the CIVIL SOCIETY REFLECTION GROUP ON GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES.

The Group was established in response to the unprecedented coincidence of global crises: the economic and financial crisis, the food crisis, as well as the intensifying climate crisis. These unresolved crises reveal the failure of the dominant model of development and economic progress that is oriented on a technocratic modernization approach, which is blind to environmental and human rights aspects, confuses economic growth with progress in society, and regards poverty as a primarily technical challenge in which categories of inequality and social justice are neglected. The objective of the group was to draw lessons from these crises, to look beyond conventional development concepts and goals and to fundamentally rethink the models and measures of development and social progress ? in North and South.

The group consists of 17 civil society activists, experts and academics from around the globe. In a series of meetings during 2011 they assessed conventional and alternative models of development and well-being, including notions of green economy, critiqued and reshaped development goals and indicators, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and potential Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), drew conclusions for future development strategies and discussed specific policy recommendations for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development 2012 and the Post 2015 Development Agenda of the UN. The findings will be presented in a report at the Rio+20 Conference.

The side event provides the opportunity to discuss the policy recommendations and key messages of the Reflection Group and its report.

Participants/Speakers at the Panel:
Barbara Adams (Senior Fellow, Global Policy Forum Europe)
Chee Yoke Ling (Director of Programmes, Third World Network)
Gigi Francisco (General Coordinator, Development Alternatives with Women for the New Era)
Roberto Bissio (Executive Director, Third World Institute/Social Watch)
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz (Executive Director, Tebtebba Foundation)
Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker (Co-Chair, International Resource Panel)
Danuta Sacher (Executive Director, terre des hommes Germany)