THE DIRECTOR OF CASA PARTICIPATES IN THE GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT FORUM , BERLIN, GERMANY, 13-14 NOVEMBER 2011

It was a great privilege for CASA to receive an invitation addressed to the Director from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany to participate in the Global Development Forum  during 13-14 November 2011 at Berlin, Germany to discuss on the theme: “Minds for Change – Future of Global Development Forum”.   The Federal Minister of BMZ,  Dirk Niebel, had personally invited over 80 dignitaries from across the globe, people from different spectrum of life including sernior political leaders, bureaucrats of government agencies, intellects and CSO representatives to mark the 50 years Golden Jubilee of BMZ.    CASA was one of them and was represented in the forum by its  Director Dr. Sushant Agrawal.

The discussions were centred around possible future development paradigms around the world.   The focus was to ensure that people of the world have peace & justice based on equitable distribution of the resources and a strategy of inclusive development.    The honourable President of Germany Mr. Christian Wulff was the Chief Guest. During the evening celebration on 14^th November, more than 1000 local dignitaries were invited.

The Consultation discussed several issues and held as many as 8 group discussions on various sub-themes.  At the end of the 2 days consultation many important issues were identified and a plan of action was prepared.

Given below are some of the key issues identified at the consultation:

? Good governance on global, national. local level for sustainable development.

? New forms of global cooperation  - alternatives

? Responsible utilization of resources (human, technical, natural, economic) for sustainable         well being of all !

? Effective use of information, communication and Technology

? Rootedness  & identity

?    Peace, conflict , Social cohesion , justice, equality &  security

? Investing into the younger generation (education plus)

? International networking

? Managing consequence of climate change, negotiation, adaptation & resource scarcity.

? Access to resources by the under privileged

? New decision making leadership models for multiple objectives and natural resource use.

? New decision making leadership models for multiple objectives,  Multi-polarity without   tradition, multilateral governance.

? Convergence of business / civil society interests – long term plan.

? Migration, both country to country and rural to urban