Editors’ guidelines for national reports

The theme of the 2011 Social Watch Report is sustainable development.

The report will be presented in the context of the preparations for the Rio + 20 Summit, at a critical juncture: time has come to open up new ways to move ahead, to learn lessons from the world crises –economic, financial, climate and food- and to re-think our goals and strategies for development and social progress, in the South as well as in the North. To reach this objective each and every national report in the SW 2011 Report is a vital element, beyond the great plans and paradigms that are involved, the Social Watch organizations know better than anyone what the real situation at the national and sub national level is. It is these specific contributions that give the report its overall meaning.

What sustainable development means, above all, is finding a balance between human rights, the environment and development, and what each Social Watch national report has to evaluate is the interaction between society, economy and environment.

 

The deadline for sending in the national reports is 14 March 2011.

A report can have no more than 1,700 words with two charts or tables, or 2,300 words without tables or charts.

Further information is available at: www.socialwatch.org/2011report

For any comments, doubts or queries please contact: swreport@socialwatch.org

 

Sustainable development as the main theme of the 2011 report

The Social Watch Accra Assembly, in October 2009 shaped the network’s strategy and the framework of activities for the current period. On that occasion, the assembly reaffirmed the network’s commitment to peace, social, economic, environment and gender justice, and to the right of all people not to be poor. Also, the assembly recognized climate change as a threat to the very survival of our planet and that, based on the notion of environmental justice. Social Watch will be contributing to the current climate negotiations, an approach founded on its social and gender justice principles.

Abiding by these principles, Social Watch is currently promoting Rethinking Development and Progress[1], an alliance of civil society organizations whose purpose is to reflect on development perspectives. This group is made up of 15 civil society activist leaders, experts and academics from all over the world. It will evaluate conventional and alternative models for development and well-being, reconsider development indicators and goals including the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), draw conclusions for future development strategies, and make specific recommendations for policies for the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

Rethinking Development and Progress is already showing awareness that to face the dramatic impact of the current multiple crises (financial, climate, food, fuel) we need a comprehensive approach based on equity and justice between countries and within countries, since the kind of growth now experienced by developing countries is not leading to job creation and poverty eradication. The immediate goals to reach are inclusive growth and sustainable development.

We find ourselves at a crucial point in time – fast approaching the 2015 deadline for the MDGs, while preparing for the 2012 Conference on Sustainable Development. Today’s unprecedented coincidence of global crises – economic, financial, food and climate – reveals the dead end to which the dominating models of development have led us. It is now time to break with past practices and break new ground, to draw lessons from these crises and to fundamentally rethink our goals and measures of development and social progress – in North and South.

The time between the Summits in 2010 and 2012 provides a unique window of opportunity to reconsider the current development paradigm and to develop strategies towards a holistic, rights-based approach of global development and well-being. The Group will contribute to this process of rethinking.

While inclusive growth will mean rebalancing the private sector with the interests of citizens and the states’ obligations to promote human rights and provide a “social floor” for all (and this in turn requires a global investment in climate security, food security, social protection and employment creation in developing countries), to reach sustainable development, its three pillars (environmental, economic and social) should be targeted.

However, this is just the beginning. A good portion of the evidence to be considered in this reflection process will come from the Social Watch Report 2011, whose might resides in the fact that national Social Watch organizations from all over the world provide concrete information about the real needs for development in each country, about what the main obstacles are and about which alternative proposals or views are presented by civil society in each country. The experiences at the national level collected in the Report 2011 will help demonstrate the extent to which the current development model aggravates social injustice.

Participation at the grassroots level is key to sustainable development: for it to be feasible there is a need to move to approaches that involve cross-sectoral co-ordination and the integration of environmental and social concerns into all development processes. In other words, as Agenda 21 (the United Nations’ action plan for sustainable development) has emphasized, there will be no sustainable development without broad public participation in decision making. In this regard, the annual international Social Watch report, based on reports made by citizens’ groups and independent coalitions, will become a key player in the discussion on sustainable development.

The muscle of grassroots groups and coalitions’ positions derives from their knowledge of facts on the ground, and from being first-hand witnesses and crucial providers of information. They are the ones who have real experience on the issues, and they are best entitled to supply specific information about the big problems and challenges affecting each country.

After all, what do we mean when we speak of sustainable development? The area of can be divided conceptually into three parts or “pillars”: environmental, economic and social. These three pillars can be understood as the continuous relationship between social well-being, the environment and economic growth. Sustainable development means both that development must be inclusive so that all actors are committed and that all actions must meet the developmental and environmental needs of present and future generations. It is precisely the Social Watch national coalitions who know best what the needs of present and future generations in each country are.

This is reinforced by the fact that the strategies to reach sustainable development must be diverse and respond to the specific needs of countries. Here, again, it is the Social Watch national coalitions who are best suited to understand the particular developmental needs and strategies for each country.

The aim of sustainable development is to define and implement viable projects and reconcile the economic, social and environmental aspects of human activities. Here again, the Social Watch coalitions are best entitled to reckon the extent to which environmental factors connect to the most vulnerable sectors of society.

To demonstrate let’s consider global warming, this environmental factor was identified by the Accra assembly as a threat to the very survival of the planet. All around the world rising temperatures affect human lives, but it is the disadvantaged who suffer the most. Women, people of color, low-income, and Indigenous communities are affected by compromised health, financial burdens, and social and cultural disruptions due to climate change.

They are the first to experience the negative impacts of climate change such as heat-related illnesses and death, respiratory illness, infectious diseases, unaffordable rises in energy costs, and extreme natural disasters. Not only do they bear disproportionate burdens from climate change itself, but also from ill-designed policies to prevent climate change and the side effects of the energy systems that cause it as well.

This goes against any notion of justice: those who are most affected are the least responsible for the greenhouse gas emissions that cause the problem–both globally and within each country. Global warming, an issue of human rights and environmental justice, must be dealt with in national reports while considering its human, social and economic impacts.

Some points to consider while writing national reports

The realities on the ground are different for each country. However, as we will be including some 60 – 70 national reports, we will need to reach some middle ground among them. Thus, we suggest some general guidelines for the national reporters to take into consideration.

Something to bear in mind while writing national reports is that the SW 2011 is not centred only on the environment but on the interaction between society, the economy and the environment, since the aim of sustainable development is to define and implement viable projects and reconcile the economic, social and environmental aspects of human activities (in other words, on what makes development sustainable).

Some advice that may help in writing the report is given below. These points should not be taken as a questionnaire or as a list of subjects that must be covered; rather they are general guidelines that may be of use to some.

First, it would be suitable to make clear which aspects of sustainable development feature in the debate in the specific country and which do not. Therefore it may be helpful to outline the current approaches to this problem or problems. These approaches may be correct and the problem is being adequately tackled by current policies, or they may be erroneous or not known, or they may be hampered by a range of factors that might be external, like economic limitations, or internal, like local elites ignoring the problem, or there may simply be a lack of awareness about the problem.

In dealing with these factors, a good approach would be to arrange the report in line with the schema below.

  1. Identify the problems
  2. Identify the solutions
  3. Identify the obstacles
  4. Explain what should be done, and if civil society in your country has alternative proposals or views

Some examples of themes to be tackled are as follows: To what extent are climate change, soil erosion, the loss of biodiversity, desertification and the over-consumption of resources connected to the most vulnerable sectors of society? How are government policies on development and the environment set: is there a process where civil society, parliament, and the general population have input or is the agenda and policies set either by the government, by donors or other outside actors, or a combination of the two? We have learned over the years that reports are much stronger when they give concrete examples because the more specific the Social Watch Report is the more weight it carries. Therefore the national reports should be illustrative, and preferably each assertion should be backed up with a concrete example.

 

Suggested reference materials attached

If you are interested in checking more information on background information on sustainable development or how to write a national report for the Social Watch Report 2011, please go to <www.socialwatch.org/2011report>

[1] Further Information is available at www.reflectiongroup.org

 

Made possible thanks to the funding and support of the European Commission and Oxfam Novib.

The international secretariat of Social Watch also receives funding and support from the Coalition of the Flemish North South Movement – 11.11.11.

The contents of these guidelines are the sole responsibility of its authors and of the Social Watch network and can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the European Commission, Oxfam Novib and the Coalition of the Flemish North South Movement – 11.11.11