28. The Global Community: its objectives, the GCAC, the Charter, the grassroots process and the organization

Lead Papers

 Germain Dufour,  Md. Hasibur Rahman 

The Global Community organization was envisioned in 1990 as an entity having a new home every five years. Its present home has been Canada since then. Its new home and headquaters will be established in August during the World Congress. It will be given a new organizational structure as per input sent during this Discussion Roundtable.

Headquarters may be in Canada with branches everywhere else in the World. Or there may be a Board of Directors selected in a country and the Board would change every five years and should move periodically anywhere on Earth to keep the organization free from connection to any specific country and cultural environment. Each new place would bring in fresh, stimulating input to the organization, giving it new life.

How should the organization be structured? There two options:

A)    Assuming The Global Community organization is structured as a moving entity every five years.

We are now accepting proposals for a new Board of Directors and a new host country for The Global Community organization. We accept proposals by groups of four officers as described below.

Only participants (who become automatically lifetime members of the organization) can apply to become an officer. You may still apply to become a participant.

Officers of the new Board of Directors will be selected and they will be required to work as a team. Those interested please submit applications now. A new Board of Directors is made up of at least four officers: a President, a Vice-president, a Treasurer, and a Secretary-general. The past President is an automatic officer as a Vice-president. Those groups of four officers (or more) interested in taking over the task of taking The Global Community organization  through the next five years please submit your proposal now.

Any group will have to satisfy basic criteria as shown here.

In deciding where Headquarters of The Global Community organization will move after the election,  several criteria will be taken into account: qualifications of the candidates for leadership (submit your CV if not already sent), the communications infra-structure of the host country, support systems, and financial support by the Board of Directors or sponsors as The Global Community organization has no outside funds at all.

Ten percent of any money made by the organization should be put into a special fund and let accumulated. The fund could only be used by the organization in case of an emergency and for its own survival.

Candidates work strictly on a volunteer basis and find what support they need for the organization. As President of the organization, I will see that the transfer of The Global Community organization to its new home proceeds smoothly.

The new team must be capable of the successful continuation of global projects and also the initiation of new projects in the host country and other parts of the world.

Five years late the team will pass on the organization to a new group in another country with a different  cultural environment using a similar process. No debt should be passed on to the new group. A credit should have been let accumulated over five years and pass on the new group.

The deadline for submission of your proposal is August 1st. You must send the CVs of the officers, a short essay of why you think you can manage the organization through the next five years, and show how you will satisfy the above criteria.

All participants of the World Congress will be asked to vote for the new Board of Directors as a group. They will select the group. A vote will be a vote for the group. The voting procedure will be described at a later date.

The first task of the Board will be to approve the Earth Charter discussed during the World Congress. This task may be accomplished during the World Congress.

B)    Assuming The Global Community organization has a Headquarters in Canada and branches are created everywhere else in the world.

In this case the new Board of Directors would be a group of at least four people chosen amongst members (participants to the World Congress). They may be from any country.
 
 

1. Historical Perspective and now Grassroots
 

The Global Community organization was first discussed in a report on global changes published in 1990 by Germain Dufour. The report contained 450 policies (workable sound solutions) on sustainable development, and was presented to the United Nations, the Government of Canada, and to several non-profit organizations and scientists.

Now everyone is invited in participating in The Global Community affairs. Every person is a responsible member of The Global Community. Grassroots extend to us all.
 

2. A new, unique Global Dialogue
 

With the coming of the millennium, the affairs of humanity appear to be unfolding in more profound ways. Cause and effect is more apparent and happening more quickly. Those of you who are educated and aware will find themselves urgently called upon to action for the good of all humanity.

Global link-ups are already happening at a fast rate. Business leaders are much more sensitive to the greater, wider needs for their expertise and are already in the process of creating a new kind of civilization.

One of the most important factors in our lives is the inter-connection we have to others, to other countries. Through these connections individuals will be able to create changes for good on a global scale.

We are now all becoming linked to others in faraway places on a much deeper level. If we work together to keep our planet healthy, productive and hospitable, it will benefit all people and living things. As your awareness of this global need deepens you will want to join with others to see that good changes happen.

Right now you can use your skills, your knowledge, your abilities, to realize how these strengths can help bring about the best kind of changes in the world by connecting with us in our aim to promote sustainable development on four major levels: the land, the richness of our land, our economic endeavours and the welfare of all our peoples.

All communities are at a turning point. We can no longer perceive ourselves as a People who can survive alone and who does not need anyone else. We belong to and depend upon a much larger group, The Global Community. The 21st Century will see limitless links and interrelationships formed within this Global Community. The entire world is at a turning point.

Already we notice new ways of thinking being embraced, new behaviors and attitudes adopted.

New standards, goals and objectives have to be defined. Exchange of creative solutions will help us create firm universal guidelines to keep Earth healthy.

All interacting levels of concern must be considered ~ people, resources, economic development and environment.

The Global Community aims to establish a new, permanent dialogue on measuring and managing sustainable development. It is a grassroots process. Everyone is involved. Everyone is part of The Global Community. Your views are important. We want to hear what they are.

3. The Organization: membership, objectives, Board of Directors

Every person is part of The Global Community and can become a member of the Organization.

Objectives of The Global Community have yet to be locked in. The World Congress will allow these objectives to be defined, with your help.

The Board of Directors of The Global Community will be elected by all members during the World Congress. Members will also be allowed to vote through the Internet and email.

Meetings will be conducted on the Internet. Agendas and minutes will be displayed on this Webpage.

4. A Charter to be developed

The needs of a truly global organization are to be addressed.

All organizations and industries will have to make adjustments as new ways of conducting affairs appear to make geographical and political boundaries vanish.

The Global Community creates one entity. It requires a system and an organization based on a grassroots process, as new world-wide associations strengthen and horizons recede. Universal needs must be explored.

A Charter for this reality has to be developed. The World Congress is your opportunity to propose workable new concepts for The Global Community Charter.

5. A Scale of Values agreeable to the majority of the members

The aim of The Global Community is to give people an opportunity to meet, encourage and advise one another about original ways to best harmonize impacts upon

We must abandon ideas which have not worked well, including traditional ways that have simply become habits. Getting rich at the expense of everyone else is no longer acceptable. Over the decades, history has proven projects and actions which ignored everything except a special interest have resulted in ultimate failure and human misery.

The Global Community aims to establish a UNIVERSAL BENCHMARK for the 21st Century. The benchmark will be obtained from of a Scale of Values for sustainable development which is based on the measurement of universal indicators.

All members will help assessing sustainable development and agree upon this scale.

Your input is vital. We need to hear your voice in these matters. Every country must be heard from to arrive at a workable universal scale of values.

6. Voting through the Internet

The Global Community is in the process of defining itself. Voting should be done through the Internet and/or using email so as to allow every member to participate actively and responsibly in the organization activities.

We are asking for your advice on key issues such as:

1. What should be criteria for an officer?
2. How should a member vote on the Internet?
3. How do we make voting honest, and secure?
4. How should campaigning for office be conducted?
5. Who should be part of GCAC?
 

7. The Global Community Assessment Centre (GCAC)

GCAC is the assessment Centre for The Global Community. It was created to give individuals or organizations help and/or advice about negative events happening in their communities which cause concern to people, resources, industry or the environment. GCAC is also the Centre of assessment of local/global indicators about the four major quality systems: Environment, People, Economic Development and the Availability of Resources. The assessment of these indicators will result in giving The Global Communitya sense of direction as to ensure a sound future for Earth.

In order to do this GCAC will continue to amass a body of scientific information based on formal assessments such as those on Biodiversity, Climate Change, Human Development Report, World Development Report, struggle for Human Rights, life species Conservation, Health, Economic Analyses, Commission on Sustainable Development, etc., which have bridged the distance between incomplete science and contentious policy. Local and global indicators developed by The Global Community will also be used as basic scientific information.

Furthermore, no one really understands what assessment processes have been most effective in the past, or why others have failed. The Centre’s goal is to explore how assessment of local/global indicators can better link scientific understanding with the progressive implementation of effective policy solutions to global changes. Achieving this integration is fundamental. The Global Community needs this annual assessment to effectively manage global changes.

GCAC has several objectives.

GCAC is:

· Serving as The Global Community Assessment Centre of indicators about global changes;
· Dedicated to increasing public awareness about issues of global concern;
· Working in cooperation with individuals, industry, and government to create a global value shift toward a sustainable future for Earth;
· Disseminating information on sustainable development;
· Promoting international cooperation and a Global Community Sustainable Development through seminars and conferences, and a World Congress;
· Providing strategies to achieve environmental, health and safety excellence and economic success in The Global Community;
· Providing a link between scientists, officials from all levels of government, economists, statisticians, environmentalists, ecologists, renewable and non-renewable resources specialists, business leaders, non-governmental organizations, educators, health and social experts, Aboriginals and Natives, home and community planners, and the public to explore local and global sustainable development issues under the theme:

 · Serving the scientific community as a forum for the presentation and discussion of important issues related to sustainable development;
· Generating a Global Community dialogue about and for peace and sound solutions to that effect;
· Providing a Global Online Community for the general public and the opportunity for involvement and feedback into projects and programs;
· Providing The Global Community with sound solutions related to home and community sustainable development, environmental designs and sustainable buildings;
· Committed to the sustainable end of world hunger by finding sound solutions to development;
· Promoting the global adoption of energy-efficiency in order to enable a sustainable economic development and an ecological sustainable development;
· Performing Global review of projects, examine alternatives, and formulates guidelines and criteria for future local and global development;
· Establishing a permanent global dialogue on measuring and managing sustainable development;
· Establishing a permanent global dialogue on finding sound solutions to sustainable development;
· Establishing a permanent global dialogue to ensure a sound future for Earth;
· Mechanisms for citizen participation to finding sound solutions;
· Coordinating the assessment of local and global indicators along with other national and international organizations;
· Establishing accounting and valuation on sustainable development; making results available to governments, research institutions, NGOs from all countries;
· Establishing The Global Community network that will conduct annual assessments of sustainable development indicators and making results available on the Internet;
· Providing gross global indicators to The Global Community:

· Developing projects and programs to promote The Global Community concept in schools;
· Establishing a warning system on environmental hazards and emergencies to help prevent disasters from happening;
· Helping countries to prevent and peacefully settle environmental disputes by initiating a process for dialogue and finding solutions;
· Proposing a local and global Code of criminal law governing transnational offenses; propose minimum standards of punishment for transboundary criminal behavior;
· Proposing joint legal instruments and policies to facilitate management of transboundary natural
resources and border ecosystems, and to regulate the use of renewable natural resources;
· Proposing integrated accounts systems, business and industry accounts, economic policies, policy instruments, and private actions;
· Proposing policies and management practices to national and international organizations for the integration of environment and development at various stages of the decision-making process;
· Proposing joint projects between countries for resource management and control;
· Proposing to international institutions (World Bank, IMF, etc.) measurements of sustainable development be included in their statistics on socioeconomic, trade and financial performance;
and
· Proposing regulatory instruments on sustainable development.

8. To educate People

There is a need to train the next generation of scientists, officials from all levels of government, economists, statisticians, environmentalists, ecologists, renewable and non-renewable resources specialists, business leaders, non-governmental organizations, educators, health and social experts, Aboriginals and Natives, home and community planners, policy analysts, international law specialists, and the public in the skills of collaborating in the future management of global change, which will be vital to survival.
 

Students of all levels (school, college, technical, university) are invited to participate in The Global Communnity. They are asked to produce any creative work of their vision of what Global Community Action 1 can accomplish ~ in the fields of zoology, biology, on history, on geography, on social and political sciences, on agriculture, energy, earth sciences, communications, wilderness, pollution, on the water supplies of the world, poverty, employment, social justice, human rights, business and economy, availability of resources and so on.

9. The Global Community WebNet

The Global Community WebNet is the HOMEPAGE of The Global Community on the Internet. A variety of worldwide services are being planned and are being proposed to The Global Community. Some of these services are:

1. Job possibilities
2. Business contacts
3. Global Community Assessment Centre
4. Meetings and voting on the Internet
5.  Support Centre