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1- The Forum was held in the framework
of CONGO organization that is the Conference of Non-Governmental
Organizations in consultative relationship with the United Nations.
2- The purpose of the Forum was to
carry out discussions and preparations to agree on specific
recommendations to be presented to the ECOSOC High Level Segment.
3- The true determined objective of
the recommendations was creating an environment at the national and
international levels conducive to generating full and productive
employment and decent work for all.
4- The basic objective of the
participation of AAPSO representative in the meeting is to
participate in the proceedings as well as contributing by a paper in
one of the workshops.
5- The Forum included the following proceedings:
a) An opening session chaired by Mrs. Renate Bloem and attended by
UN and Swiss government official figures.
b) A keynote speech by Mr. Juan Somavia (ILO Director general).
c) A seminar under the theme: “Economic ethos: would a universal
basic income for all be sufficient?” by the Committee on
Spirituality Values and Global Concerns. The seminar was moderated
by Dr. Astrid Stuckelberger from the University of Geneva. She
delivered five lectures in that context.
d) 18 workshops were held in the framework of 6 groups (each group
has a key issue) at a rate of 2-4 workshops for each key issue.
e) A general discussion on the recommendations of each group
f) A general discussion on the recommendations of the six groups.
g) Two Occasions (Reception and acquaintanceship) by the end of the
days 29 and 30 June.
h) A field visit to a cooperative farm at Geneva suburbs (1 July).
(6)The Keynote speech of ILO Director General:
The speech took 45 minutes. The key messages of the speech were the
following:
- For the past 25 years, a contraction in Labour value has occurred
(consequently a contraction in the value of humanity).
- The real life of people is in localities (i.e. the places where
they live).
- Formal jobs contribute to achieving social security.
- The value of international transactions (or game) is made in
particular for the strongest.
- Policies that result in conflicts come essentially from the
international level.
- The unemployed person is similar to a football that is kicked
between the politician’s feet. A matter that necessitates elevating
employment issue above policy levels.
(7) The seminar “Economic ethos: would a universal basic income for
all be sufficient?”
The five introduced lectures included viewpoints on the value of
labour as well as analyzing and crossing the gab between the
theoretical thought and practical reality. The participation of
AAPSO’s representative came at the end of the session where it
directed the attention to the need of tracing the mechanisms of
depowerment for peoples on the national and international levels as
well as focusing on networking in the tracing process as being a
strategic entry for empowering the people of the South in particular
(the peoples of the North and the South equally). The moderator of
the seminar requested to consider this speech a general conclusion
of the seminar.
(8) AAPSO’s representative participated in the second workshop of
the second Group. The topic of the workshop was “Social Dialogue and
Alliance Building” as a part of the second group’s issue that was
titled “Creating an enabling Environment at the national level
conducive for growth and employment. The workshop included three
speakers:
- Mrs. Mama Koita Doumbia - representative of African Women’s
Development and Communication Network. She spoke of Mali experience.
- Mr. Alagandram Sivananthiram-ILO representative. He spoke of the
experience of Social Dialogue in some countries.
- Mr. Mohamed Raouf Hamed. His speech was titled “Towards a more
potential for systemic empowerment”
* Regarding Mrs. Mama’s lecture (the paper was not circulated). The
most significant aspect that attracted the attention was the success
of civil society in lobbying to become a partner (in addition to the
government) in the dialogue with donor international agencies
especially the International Monetary Fund.
* As for Mr. Alagandram’s lecture the most significant attracting
elements were the reasons behind the success of social dialogue in
some countries, of which are:
- The parallelism of social development process and productivity
(Japan case).
- The sincere desire of government to build capacity for dialogue
(Singapore case).
- The workers’ strong contribution to social dialogue (Hong Kong
Case).
Mr. Alagandram concluded by the importance of government’s
conviction (i.e. the government’s belief) of the necessity of social
dialogue.
* Regarding AAPSO’s representative paper, it was the only written
paper in the workshop. It was circulated among all participants. The
paper had its own reflection over discussions and influence on the
recommendations, in particular the sixth recommendation of the
second workshop, cluster 2.
(9) The process of reaching the recommendations was carried out in a
Democratic framework through three stages:
- Discussion of the papers of each workshop.
- Discussion of the workshops recommendations in the group meeting
which comprised a number of workshops.
- Discussion of the groups’ recommendations in a big meeting
attended by all participants in the Forum.
(10) In the framework of the Forum’s proceedings and the two
receptions, Acquaintances with many individuals, organizations were
made. In addition to identifying many activities from different
countries of the world in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Australia and
Europe.
(11) Important remarks:
-The Africans were the most committed participants to the Forum’s
Proceedings (regarding the subjects and timings)
- It was obvious that all participants objectively understood the
unethical approaches of American policy and brutal imperialism as
well as the interaction between such approaches.
- The attention to the necessity of paying the appropriate
consideration to the emergence of new groups and potentials in civil
work on the national and international levels acting in specified
social frameworks. Their actions have strong empowering reflections
to improve conditions in the world.
- The importance of communicating the activities of AAPSO with the
new social civil work on the national, regional and international
levels.
- An example of new civil work groups is a cooperative farm located
at the sides of Geneva. (AAPSO representative with a group of the
Forum’s participants visited the farm on 1/7/2006). Such farm
achieved local successes. It communicated as well with other farms
in Africa for exchanging experiences.
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