by Hanna Sundberg
Earth TimesFebruary 5, 2002
The Earth Times was eager to catch a few words with the leading NGO representatives before they left New York to continue their struggle for an alternative society. We met Director-Designate of Friends of the Earth, Tony Juniper and Public Eye on Davos Coordinator Matthias Herfeldt at their favorite Manhattan cafe. Both of them were invited to participate at the Forum, but only Tony Juniper accepted. Matthias Herfeldt was the proud organizer of the parallel Public Eye on Davos Conference at the UN Church Center. Take part of their WEF evaluation and concluding discussion below.
What are the accomplishments in terms of changing the tone inside the WEF?
Juniper: It was my first time at Forum so I wouldn't be able to tell you if it has changed or not, but from what I can gather the meetings were much more focused on globalization issues and analyzing why the protests were going on. They didn't do that before. Either they didn't notice or they ignored it. This time there was a real concern, they were trying to understand what was going on outside, why they are so mad and why people are protesting against the meeting.
So they are actually trying?
Juniper: No I don't think they are trying, I just think they are wondering. They are trying to work out what's going on, which is a step in the right direction. From what I heard the discussions were mostly about the benefits of globalization and there was still a resistance to discuss the role of business in economical globalization and how the enterprises have to accommodate to sustainable development. They still don't want to talk about it and they are still a little scared. So they talk about things like the program of digital aid in Africa, more support for AIDS research and some modest questions about changing agricultural trade arrangements in order to benefit developing countries, theoretically. They are still looking at the big questions in quite a marginal and business friendly way. I don't think that any fundamental shift in their thinking has taken place yet, but they are certainly very well aware that they are under attack.
Are you happy about the invitation to the WEF?
Herfeldt: From the Bern Declaration we were invited to the WEF, but since we are the coordinators of the campaign The Public Eye of Davos, we decided that we should stay independent. However we had always NGOs from our coalitition, which counts for countries from all the continents, inside the Forum to provide information about what was going on. For many of the NGOs it is a dilemma to be invited. Some of them participated only if their organizations were also allowed to protest. There were about 50 NGO participants at the WEF, but some of them are very tame and very viable NGOs such as relief organizations aiming to help children, not really wanting to change the development in any other way.
Juniper: There are two ways to look at the NGO participation. One the one hand you can look at it with big suspicion seeing it as the WEF seeking to gain respectability and through the very act of having its very critics invited in the discussion to give the impression that they are caring about the issues. And when they are asked about transparency and so on they just point to having all these NGOs inside. The other way to look at it is to see it as a possibility to gain influence and access and to able to use the intelligence and the understanding of the process inside to able to do more effective campaigning. And that's what we tried to do. We put a letter to each of the Chief Executives this year essentially asking them to support one of our campaigns to regulate international companies through binding rules. So we used the opportunity to make a direct challenge to them. And I don't think they liked it very much, it was possibly the last time we got to be invited... I don't know.
The WEF is a quite informal meeting. Were you able to interact with the businessmen and women?
Juniper: Yes it is very informal, which makes in odd in one way. There is no agenda leading to any outcome for agreements or negotiating text. It is all informal networking and discussion which is fine. But a carious thing to try to engage in. I got the feeling that the people that turned up the discussions I took part in, the meeting for example looking at the Rio +10 Summit and the outcomes from there, were all NGOs and some academics. So there was a division / differentiation of the people at the Forum, since you can chose which meetings to attend.
So you didn't intermingle so much with the Chief Executives?
Juniper: Yes I did. And actually I think that it is a rather good way to sort of corrupt some of the leaders of big critical groups. I think that some people would find it difficult to stay critical when you get embraced by the institution and meet with all these VIPs and leaders of the world. Many of them are clever and nice people so it is quit easy end up in a, how should I say, twilight zone.
Are you confused?
No I 'm not, I know where I stand. But I think that you could be! A lot of these companies and CEOs though, have been subject and target to many campaigns of environmental groups, so they were a bit nervous talking to us.
Did you have a good time?
Juniper: Well, it is not the kind of circle that I generally mix in, it is not the sort of meeting I would normally go to, but it was quite interesting. I do think that some people would find it a seductive environment wishing to be constructive, wishing to be not too critical, in case one is not included the next time. It all depends on how eager you are to be invited again next year, I guess.
Herfeldt: I had calls from several NGO representatives inside the Forum, one of them the Secretary General of Amnesty International Irene Kahn, who told us that they wanted to come to our conference. Irene Kahn told us that she wanted to show that she belongs to the NGO establishment which shows that she didn't want to come too close to the people inside. We quoted her in our press release as she stated that "the kind of discussions that we had at the Public Eye on Davos were not possible inside the Forum". That is very clearly spoken.
More Information on NGOs
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