CIDSE at the 2015 World Social Forum in Tunis- day 2
Today, the CIDSE team in Tunis started the day all together, reflecting on how to go “beyond development and how to build just and sustainable societies”. During the workshop, hosted by our long time partner ABONG from Brazil, we had the chance to listen to Mercia Andrews from South Africa, Marcus Aruda from Brazil, Soummy Doutta from India, Pablo Solon from Bangkok and Denise Auclair from the CIDSE secretariat.
This very 
inspiring debate challenged us on how to rethink and redefine development; on how we can make sure we are contributing to the change we want to see. In the room, there was a common feeling that we first of all need to “walk the talk”. This implies to address consumption, to scale up the already existing alternatives, to regain power and to encourage more and more people to engage in exchanges in order to identify how we can bring about a system change.
Three main thoughts around this aroused:
-The concept of growth was strongly questioned. Marcos Aruda insisted that “we need economic degrowth in the North for a fairer global society. But on the other hand, we surely need spiritual growth for our minds.” Let s be bold on stating that the alternatives we want should not be only economic alternatives.
-Soummy Doutta reminded us that “being the change we want to see is not enough. We need to better understand our societies and how to scale up the local alternatives we see.”
-Denise Auclair questioned the purpose of the corporation as it has evolved in the last years, insisting that the part for shareholders has been growing far too much.
Later on during the day, the CIDSE team had to split up in order to attend the most possible workshops. Some continued exchanging on how to prevent environmental and human rights abuses by corporations. A particularly interesting workshop in this spirit was about “cheating mother earth” and the false solutions promoted by many transnational energy corporations, as the carbon markets, the geo-engeneering and the biofuels.
For the CIDSE team, the World Social Forum is also a great opportunity to connect with other grassroots movements and to link with our constituencies but also to get to know new people from other continents. Tomorrow is already the last day of the forum. We’ll make sure to make the most of it.
More pictures are available here.
Contact on-site: Stefan Reinhold, Reinhold@cidse.org
Contact at the CIDSE secretariat in Brussels: Valentina Pavarotti, Pavarotti@cidse.org