D+C Development and Cooperation (No. 6, November/December 2000,
p. 15 - 16)

Even if EXPO 2000 did not attract its expected number of visitors and thus ended up in red figures, a positive balance must be drawn for its developmental yield. Never before at a comparable event was there such an extensive programme of dialogue on topics of sustainable development. The final dialogue was to be the quintessence of the entire conference series. But it did not live up to that high claim.

At nine major conferences on development policy, the so-called Global Dialogues, during EXPO 2000 in Hanover, politicians, academics, representatives of NGOs and practicians in all areas of life discussed the issues of the future of humanity and sought solutions to them. A total of about 3,000 participants and some 60 institutions from around the world attended the nine three-day Global Dialogue events, held under the motto 'Sharing Knowledge - Shaping the Future'. The series dealt with the topics of: Sustainability and Natural Resources; Responsible Governance in a Global Society; Science and Technology; Fighting Poverty; The Role of the Village in the 21st Century; Health; Building Learning Society; Culture on the Move; and the Future of Work and Sustainable Business.

Legacy of Hanover

A tenth Global Dialogue had set itself the goal to discuss the findings of the previous nine conferences and, as a 'legacy of Hanover', formulate a "realistic vision intended to offer a basis for action and further discussion around the world". For this purpose, the organisers, who besides EXPO 2000 included the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), the Club of Rome, the German Foreign Office, and the Worldwide Young Researchers for the Environment (WYRE), invited 51 young men and women from 37 countries to take part. As 'Leaders of Today and of Tomorrow', the young people - all under 31 - were to bring the hopes, expectations and visions of the future generation into the discussion process. In her opening speech, EXPO Commissioner General Birgit Breuel said this tenth Dialogue was the "most important of all" and appealed to the participants to develop "tangible solutions" for the future. "Shake us awake! Be bold! Contribute something concrete and thereby help us all!" she encouraged the young people.

But how was this high claim to be fulfilled? The organisers did not recruit the participants until the month before the event. The 15 young delegates named by the GTZ were selected via youth projects in Latin America, Asia and Africa. The WYRE chose another 15 with the help of an essay competition, the Foreign Office used its contacts with the German Academic Exchange Service for its selection, and the Club of Rome nominated other participants.

Thus was gathered together a motley group about whose qualifications conference observers were told nothing more than that they represented the 'Leaders of Today and of Tomorrow'. And they faced what a woman expert rightly described as the "daredevil" undertaking of developing the expected 'legacy of Hanover' within two-and-a-half days.

Poor preparation

The prerequisites for thorough preparation for this task were lacking if only because of the short notice of the invitation. The young men and women coming from all corners of the globe met each other for the first time on the eve of the Dialogue. Since it was only at the conclusion of the conference that a list of participants, if rudimentary, was available, the less communicative among the young people remained anonymous to the end. As the evaluation session following the conference showed, some of them felt overwhelmed and manipulated by the organisers. "I'm not sure that most of the outcome was from the young" said one of them critically. "The facilitators were directing our mindsets" complained another.

Without the helping hand and the organisational routine of the organisers, however, no concrete results could have been achieved in such a short time. It took half a day alone to sum up in nine brief presentations and in extremely condensed form the content and findings of all the previous Global Dialogues. It was a tour de force that put even seasoned conference professionals to the test. Further valuable time was lost due to daily talk shows which, although some of their content was in fact interesting and their format was entertaining, were in no way linked directly to the conference's goal. So in the end there remained only two-and-a-half hours on the afternoon of the second day for the participants to form working groups oriented on the topics of the nine Dialogues and formulate their own approaches and thoughts. It was due only to the efficiency of the metaplan method used that in this short time some core principles on all nine theme sectors could be put in writing. However, there was no thorough discussion in the working groups nor in the editorial session set for the next day. So it was no surprise that the participants complained about the unreasonable time pressure and showed themselves to be dissatisfied with the result.

The young people's proposals

So what are the proposals made to politics, industry, the academic world and society at large which by this means were adopted and then announced in the subsequent talk show as the 'Platform for the future. Declaration of Hanover'? In a brief preamble, the 'Young Leaders of Today and of Tomorrow' note:

• Solutions require input from all quarters: governments play a significant role, while the private business sector, the academic world, the media and civil society are indispensable partners. Only truly global partnerships between all stakeholders can make the world a better place.
• The thinking of the 20th century is no longer sustainable. The new, global world needs revamped approaches such as 'Less can be more' before new and more effective measures such as 'Think global, act local' can be introduced.

The 'Declaration of Hanover' makes a number of statements on the topics of the nine Global Dialogues (GD), some of which deviate markedly from the conclusions produced by the main conferences. While, for example, in GD1 on the topic of Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, it was said that the market must promote sustainable development and the state must provide the necessary general conditions and incentives for that, the Declaration of Hanover says: "All nations and 'political bodies' (UN, EU,...) worldwide must within a compressed time frame implement the inclusion into their constitutions or charters of the same principles of sustainability. Fulfillment of these principles must be measured by a set of indicators."

In the discussion on the findings of GD2 (Responsible Governance), the majority of the participants demanded 'unconditional, total but gradual debt cancellation for highly indebted countries. They also proposed the creation of new mechanisms to ensure control of national and global power centres "including international financial institutions and transnational companies".

On the theme of Fighting Poverty (GD4), the 'Young Leaders' propose the "building of partnership networks between developing and developed countries" to:

• monitor "good cooperation";
• help create effective and good governance;
• help bring resources to those who need them.

The innovative idea here is a type of triangular cooperation whereby a third country monitors the bilateral cooperation between a developing and a donor country.

In regard to the promotion of rural areas (GD5) the 'Young Leaders' propose, among other things, political bodies "making rural areas economically viable by empowering rural people to use natural resources sustainably and by decentralising economic systems through localised production and distribution". In the working group discussion on this point it was clear that the majority of the participants still harbour notions of rural autonomy and subsistence economy that hardly fit into a modern, integrated and urbanised society. By contrast, GD5 emphasised the mutual dependency of urban and rural areas and complained that politics, industry and the academic world did not pay enough attention to the diverse linkages between town and country.

On the theme of the future of work (GD9), the Declaration demanded "social justice for all" by standardising and enforcing minimum working conditions, and security for all through international company standards certified by ILO, civil society, local government and trade unions.

The Declaration ended with a rousing appeal to an undisclosed address to finally stop talking and act immediately. "We are ready to take on the responsibility," assured the 51 'Leaders of Today and of Tomorrow'. They appealed to the organisers of the Global Dialogues to pass on their proposals to the German government, to all the nations and organisations participating in EXPO 2000, and to the organisers of EXPO 2005 in Japan.

Follow-up

But what is now to be done with the findings of the 10 Global Dialogues and the 'Declaration of Hanover'? Ten leading figures linked in a special way to EXPO 2000, including the President of the Club of Rome, Ricardo Diez Hochleitner, EXPO Commissioner Birgit Breuel and UNEP Executive Director Klaus Töpfer, founded the Global Partnership Hannover Association in the autumn of 1999. According to the EXPO 2000 brochure, this association is to secure and further develop the content of the world exposition in Germany after its end, particularly with regard to coming world expositions such as EXPO 2005 in Japan.

Given the thin document developed by the concluding Global Dialogue as the 'Declaration of Hanover', the association will probably be unable to make much impression. The findings of the previous Dialogues, particularly the GTZ-organised GD4 on Fighting Poverty, which was prepared thoroughly in two years of work, are much more substantial. The GTZ staff involved emphasise that they were successful in bringing high-ranking decision-takers together with all stakeholders from the development regions, including representatives of grassroots organisations. The GTZ also included in the process the Projects Around the World selected by EXPO, thus truly achieving the goal of forming new alliances. German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul promised to take the conference recommendations further to the supranational level as well, thus ensuring their further dissemination.

The recommendations of other Global Dialogues that do not have such powerful institutions as the GTZ and BMZ behind them will probably land up where so many other well-meant proposals and strategy papers are already stacked: in the archives and on the desks of experts and officials. The 'declaration of Hanover' also will scarcely escape this fate.