Second China-Europe-South America Dialogue Meeting: Civil Societies in Progress for Change

We participated in the Second China-Europe-South America Dialogue Meeting: Civil Societies in Progress for Change. It was a conference about civil society’s role towards Millenium Development Goals: the global target is to improve people’s conditions around the world.

During the morning there was an introduction made by each of the participants who explained the different actions implemented by their NGO in every single context. In the afternoon, we were divided in small groups that discussed deeply three different topics: MDGs’ assessment and the “new” socal challenges, SDGs’ (Substainable Development Goals) proposals and planetary boundaries, post-2015 agenda and the new development paradigm. At the end of the day all the groups met again and they shared ideas and opinions to implement their projects.

One of the most interesting aspects of the meeting was that people from different parts of the world participated in it sharing a common vision of the new world they would like to build and exchanging their experiences each other. We are convinced this is the right path to follow because the only way to produce a substantial change is acting in a worldwide context: every country has to do something in order to obtain a sustainable way of living. All the participants were aware of this since they all agreed about the importance of strengthening relationships between Ngo around the world.

Another common point was the vision of the new world they want to construct. They were positive that the system in which we live has to change because it is bringing us towards the destruction. So, we should overcome our consumer life style and the economic structure controlled by powerful corporations. But they did not explain clearly how to do that, especially from an economic point of view. In fact, we can refuse the ongoing system but we have to replace it with another economic structure.

When the meeting finished, we had dinner together and some of the participants visted the famous market of Chinatown in Beijing, where you can taste some traditional food such as scorpions and a variety of strange insects. We really wanted to act as Chinese people but we were not so brave to taste them. We will see next time.