Theme

Workshop outlines:

(1) The Information Gap and the Role of the Media: Asymmetry of Information Flows

"A particular responsibility is borne by the mass media to ensure that they do not perpetuate and disseminate false information…"
(Prague Declaration, Article 11)

The extensive boom of information technologies and information flows in the past several decades have impacted on the very nature of global society. The term information society is now being used not only in scholarly works, but also, to an increasing extent, within public discourse. The worldwide shift from industrial production to the production of "symbolic" goods makes information skills a valuable advantage and the access to information an essential prerequisite for meaningful participation in global society.

However, the access to information and information skills are far from being distributed equally. A persistent and arguably increasing information gap exists both vertically within national populations and horizontally, dividing the developed and developing countries. The global South is suffering from extremely low access to information technologies, with large populations completely excluded from world information flows. In the developed North, the possession and distribution of information may be seen as a commodity concentrated in the hands of increasingly fewer owners.

Dealing with the information gap does not mean a mere focus on the access to information technologies, as the widely used term Digital Divide implies. Information does not necessarily equal knowledge. Indeed, information does not always increase knowledge, and building knowledge-based societies cannot, therefore, consist only of facilitating access to information.

On the other hand, information technologies may become instrumental in fostering positive social changes, promoting democracy in the world as well as helping to link North with South in a range of ways.

Moderator: Jacques Rupnik, Research Director, Center for International Studies and Research, Paris

Panelists:
Thomas Dawson, Director, IMF External Relations, Washington
James Deane, Executive Director, Panos Institute, London
Jiří Dienstbier, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia
Rosendo Fraga, Director, Nueva Mayoria, Buenos Aires
Anthony Giffard¸ Board Member, Inter Press Service, Washington
Josef Jařab, Chairperson of the Sub-Committee on the Media, Council of Europe, Strasbourg
Ahmad Kamel, North and Central Europe Bureau Chief, Al-Jazeera
Najma Sadeque, Journalist and Founding member, Women's Action Forum, Pakistan
Martin Walker, Chief Foreign Correspondent, United Press International, Washington
Joseph Warungu, Journalist, BBC World Service, Nairobi

(2) Gap in the Rules: Double Standards in International Trade and Finance?

"It would be impossible to maintain the legitimacy of global markets were they to benefit only one fifth of the global population …"
(Prague Declaration, Article 2)

According to a range of critics, the rich countries set the rules for developing countries through the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group but do not abide by them themselves. Such rules include the pressure to open economies, to liberalize financial markets and to privatize state enterprises and public services. The proponents of this neo-liberal approach argue that the countries most open to the global economy eventually benefit from it after a necessary period of transformation.

According to the critics, the developed countries contravene these free market principles by protecting their own economies. Unilateral trade barriers thus only reinforce the global inequality gap.

Is this 'gap' in the rules just a misinterpretation and should the current global free market agenda be pursued further? Should a new WTO round of trade liberalization be started?

Or does the existing economic system require reform? Should the rich countries generally lower their trade barriers to match the low level of protectionism common in the developing countries? Do we need to replace the current system of global economic governance with a new, more inclusive and democratic one?

Moderator: Frederik Willem de Klerk, Former President, Republic of South Africa

Panelists:
Yilmaz Akyüz, Director, Division on Globalization and Development, UNCTAD, Geneva
Alexandre Barro Chambrier, Executive Director for Francophone Africa, International Monetary Fund, Washington
Sylvia Borren, Director, OXFAM Netherlands, The Hague
Susan George, Vice President, ATTAC, Paris
Anuradha Mittal, Co-Director, Institute for Food and Development Policy, USA
T. Rajamoorthy, Editor, Third World Resurgence, Malaysia
Robert B. Reich, Former US Secretary of Labour
Tran Van Thinh, Former Ambassador of the EU to the WTO, Geneva
Rufus H. Yerxa, Deputy Director-General, World Trade Organisation

(3) Is There a Gap Between Public Interest and Private Profit? Ethics, Accountability and Sustainability in the World of Transnational Corporations.

"Economic globalization gives huge power and influence to multinational companies..."
(Prague Declaration, Article 8)

The transnational corporations, as pioneers of innovation and production, provide necessary jobs as well as new technologies and they are significant carriers of economic growth. In terms of economic power the top transnational corporations are more powerful than many states. Does globalization strip nation-states of power in favour of transnational corporations?

"People, not profit!" is one of the common slogans of the so-called anti-globalization protests. But is there really a gap between people and profit? What is the role and responsibility of shareholders and management of private companies in relation to society as a whole? The conflict between the right to run private business and, at the same time, the duty to protect the global commons and interests of humankind is now being discussed in various contexts.

The United Nations has launched the Global Compact, which aims at searching common strategy among private companies, the UN, and NGOs. Also, a number of corporate-based initiatives have been launched, such as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Some civil society organizations are, however, calling for a more profound change in corporate performance. For a number of them, voluntary codes of conduct and other corporate initiatives do not guarantee a responsible approach. Their agenda calls for exercising corporate accountability, be it through international bodies or civil society organizations.

Moderator: Marc Sarkady, Advisor, UN Global Compact, Washington

Panelists:
Chi Steve Chan, Former Minister of Health, Taiwan
Stephen M. Davis, President, Davis Global Advisors, Inc., USA
Edward Goldsmith, Founder, The Ecologist, London
Hazel Henderson, Partner, Calvert-Henderson Quality of Life Indicators, USA.
David C. Korten, Chairman, People-Centered Development Forum, USA
Jan Mühlfeit, Vice-President for Europe, Midle East and Africa, Microsoft Corporation
Ricardo Navarro, Chairman, Friends of the Earth International, Amsterdam
Chris Patten, Commissioner for External Relations, European Commission, Brussels
Heinz Rothermund, Former Managing Director, Royal Dutch Shell
Radomír Sabela, Director, Philips Medical Systems
Wayne Silby, President, Calvert Social Investment Fund

(4) A Gap Between North and South: Beyond the External Debt.

"The vast majority of the world's population suffers from profound economic inequality"
(Prague Declaration, Introduction)

The current extent of the external debt of developing countries reaches trillions of US Dollars. Not only does this trend become unsustainable in itself, it also continues to widen the gap between present and future generations.

External debt is one of the reasons why poor countries cannot afford to finance the basic needs of their populations and to support patterns of sustainable development. The amount of money that these countries are supposed to pay back to the creditors in many cases exceeds the income that actually flows into their economies in the form of foreign direct investments and development assistance.

International financial institutions and rich countries have already taken steps to deal with the problem of indebtedness, including relief to the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries or the Paris and London Club negotiations. Many civil society initiatives, which find these steps insufficient, have devised their own proposals for resolving the debt problem - ranging from more significant debt relief to the concept of ecological or colonial debt, which reverses the logic of creditor and debtor.

Will the debt issue be resolved within the proposed mechanisms such as the HIPC, or does sustainable resolution require broader systemic changes such as a profound re-evaluation of North-South relations and reform of the international financial architecture?

Moderator: Hilton Root, Economist, Stanford University, USA

Panelists:
Eduardo Aninat, Deputy Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, Washington
Mario Cafiero, Coordinator, International Parliamentary Network on Debt Arbitration, Buenos Aires
Wahu Kaara, Director, Kenya Debt Relief Network, Nairobi
Jürgen Kaiser, National Coordinator, Jubilee 2000, Germany
Mats Karlsson, Vice-President, World Bank Group, Washington
Njoki Njoroge Njehu, Executive Director, 50 Years is Enough Network, Washington
Jeffrey Sachs, Director, Earth Institute at Columbia University, USA