Development as a Belief System
Gilbert Rist, Majid Rahnema, Robert Molteno

In this session Gilbert Rist and Majid Rahnema takes on the concept of 'development' and show how this very particular, Eurocentric and culturally specific idea of the world has come to shape the worldviews of a significant part of humanity. To understand that the many core assumptions behind the notion of development -- progress, growth, universalism, individualism, Westernisation, marketisation etc. --are part of a 'belief system' of taken for granted truths open up for alternative and more pluralistic approaches. A starting point for the conversation is Rist's article 'Before thinking about What Next: Prerequisites for alternatives' published in What Next Volume I, and also the perspectives presented in Rahnema's The Post-Development Reader.

Health for All in a Borderless World
Ravi Narayan, Pascale Brudon, Mike Rowson, Arturo Quizhpe Peralta

The project Another Development for Health helped, already in 1978, to critically redefine the concept of health towards a focus on primary health care and the formulation of WHO's policy 'Health for All'. What has happened since, and on what topics does the critical debates on health and equity center in today's era of globalisation? The People's Health Movement (PHM), formed after the first People's Health Assembly in 2000, has galvanised into the primary, progressive global movement for equity and health. In this session the key issues and future concerns from the perspective of the PHM will be presented and discussed.

From Knowledge to Understanding: Knowledge Systems, Education and Transdisciplinarity
Manfred Max-Neef, Stephen Marglin

A critical dialogue on knowledge systems, power and the need for transdisciplinarity. The session will critically examine how mainstream economics is a reflection of one quite specific and limited Western-centred system of knowledge but also explore the limitations of current system for higher education and research in a wider sense. What does it mean to move from single disciplines and reductionism to multi-disciplinary and 'shallow' transdisciplinarity, and further on to 'deep' transdisciplinarity that attempts to go beyond the expansion of knowledge to genuine, holistic understanding of the world?

Enough! Lifestyles, Happiness and Consumption
Göran Bäckstrand, Lars Ingelstam, Eva Friman, Ignacy Sachs

How much is enough? Already in the What Now Report from 1975, Göran Bäckstrand and Lars Ingelstam asked this crucial and critical question. Their own answers stirred considerable debate and discussion on the very goals of 'development', and what would be reasonable and desirable lifestyles and consumption levels. Today, these issues are more relevant -- and controversial -- than ever. In this session the two authors will summarise the main points in their follow-up article contribution for What Next Volume I 'Enough – Global challenges and responsible lifestyles' and engage in discussions with Eva Friman who has studied the debates on economic growth and Ignacy Sachs, one of the key thinkers behind Another Development and the concept of Eco-development.

What Next for Technology: Geo-engineering and New Converging Technologies
Pat Mooney, Jim Thomas

New technologies converging at the nano-scale will undoubtly have massive impact on almost all sectors of society. There is much talk of a new industrial revolution of unprecedented scale and pace that will transform the global economy, production, labour and medicine over the next few years and decades. Yet, society has so far been very little aware of and prepared to tackle the challenges and risks that these technolgies bring with them. In the What Next Report 2005-2035, likely trends include the application of geo-engineering - massive manipulation of global ecosystems to counter global warming, the replacement of traditional raw materials with new ones, new kinds of weapons and surveillance technologies, and new means to fundamentally manipulate and enhance human peformance. The session will provide an overview of the key trendlines and highlight the major areas of concern - and discuss constructive ways forward.

Beyond the Bretton Woods Institutions – the Global Economy in Transition
Susan George, Nicola Bullard

Where is the global economy heading and what is the future of the WTO and the Bretton Woods institutions? What has the last decade of mounting critique of neo-liberalism and the Washington consensus acheived, and what are the key trendlines to the future? In the What Next Report 2005-2035 global trade is fundamentally reshaped as industrial production is transformed and traditional raw materials replaced by new nano materials. The World Trade Organisation (WTO) gradually loses its relevance and is replaced by a Transfer of Technology Treaty that exacerbates corporate monopolies and strengthen the ties between governments and corporations. Is this a likely scenario, and what other scenarios -- good and bad -- can be dicerned?

In this session leading scholar-activists centered in the midst of the struggles and debates on globalisation will engage the seminar in open-ended, exploratory and forward-looking discussions on where the global economy is heading -- and what are alternative routes.

The Tao of Antibiotic Resistance – Need for a Paradigm Shift
Satya Sivaraman, Pentii Huovinen, Otto Cars, Mary Murray

A session highlighting one of the major 'new' global health challenges and its connection with ecology, politics, the market and culture. Short and punchy voices of microbes and doctors will lay out this tense biomedical drama emerging into clinics and communities eveywhere. A multimedia presentation will propose the link between how we think about war on microbes, using antibiotics, and war on terror. A talk show format will engage participants in the social and political playout of antibiotic resistance and provoke personal and ecological views about how we might better live with microbes yet respond to the real medical threat.

The session is organised by members of the global coalition Action on Antibiotic Resistance (React), which came out of the exploratory seminar 'The Global Threat of Antibiotic Resistance: Moving towards Concerted Action' organised by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and others in 2004.

Carbon Trading: A Critical Conversation on Climate Change, Privatisation and Power
Larry Lohmann, Jutta Kill, Soumitra Ghosh

The earth is warming. The more carbon dioxide pours into the air, the less stable the climate becomes and the more urgent it becomes to leave remaining fossil fuels in the ground. Yet the dominant neoliberal 'solution' to the crisis, carbon trading, is failing to meet the challenge. Slowing social and technological change and dispossessing ordinary people of their lands and futures, carbon trading is bad for the South, bad for the North, and bad for the climate. The session takes on one of the major challenges of our times, and examines alternatives to the 'solution' that has already generated major problems on the ground and will do little to curb the use of fossil fuels.

The presenters are all part of the Durban group, which formed after the first 'Durban seminar' in 2004, organised by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation and seven other civil society organisations. A full issue of a What Next special report/Development Dialogue devoted to this issue is being launched at the Forum.

Brave New World: The Enhancement of Humans and Implications on Society
Hope Shand, Gregor Wolbring, Anita Ghai

Medical applications of nano-scale technologies have the potential to revolutionize healthcare by delivering powerful tools for diagnosing and treating disease at the molecular level. Although nanomedicine is being touted as a solution to pressing health needs in the global South, it is being driven from the North and is designed primarily for wealthy markets. Nanomedicine will enable human performance enhancement technologies (HyPEs), which will erase the distinction between therapy and enhancement, and change the definition of what it means to be human. Is the world rapidly moving towards a two-tiered humanity, with "improved" and technologically enhanced humans at the top, and non-enhanced poor people or 'naturals' at the bottom? Who is 'able' and who is 'disabled' in a future world where the whole notion of what is 'human' and 'normal' may be fundamentally redefined? This session will examine medical applications of new, nano-scale technologies and the potential impact on marginalized communities.

The New Scramble for Africa
Henning Melber, Patrick Bond, Cyril Obi, Firoze Manji, Göran Hydén

This session explores a variety of trends in which Africa is again exploited and abused, and tries to identify possible trendlines to the future. What could be termed 'A New Scramble for Africa' indicates the continued exposure of the continent's human and other natural resources to informal imperialisms, largely conducted through and on behalf of multinational and state-owned companies. Meanwhile, a fortress world is emerging with new power constellations. The establishment of new forms of South-South co-operation between so-called middle powers such as Brazil, India and South Africa - with China as the major emerging global player - suggests shifts in global relations, which are contributing to new elite formation on an international scale with direct implications on Africa. As the What Now Report 2005-2035 warns, Africa may also loose out in disastrous ways as whole markets for raw materials are substituted by new nano-based technologies. On the other hand it may also be an object of a new scramble to secure African resources and markets as a fallback if new technologies would fail. Increasingly free from state controls and constraints, yet as ever allied to governmental elites, African business interests within such globalised scenario increasingly seek international and pan-continental markets, investment opportunities and alliances.

The panel of prominent scholars and activists on African development will tackle these and other dimensions of future challenges to the African continent. It will also explore alternative routes and political strategies to change course in a more positive direction.

Challenging Mainstream Economics and Economics Education
Stephen Marglin, Gilles Raveaud

A session highligthing both internal and 'foundational' critiques of mainstream, neo-classical economics, with a focus on routes to significantly reform and alter the way economics is taught at universities all over the world. Gilles Raveaud, one of the founders of the student-led Post-autistic economics network, will share his experiences from economics students revolting against indoctrination and demanding honesty and pluralism. Marglin and Raveaud will together present and discuss their project to write (together with Tariq Banuri -- and supported by the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation) an alternative textbook in economics aimed for the commercial market.

The Future of Human Rights Activism
Joanna Kerr, Anita Nayar, Adetoun Ilumoka

This session will explore ways in which human rights frameworks and strategies can offer solutions for social justice, but also highlight challenges and limitations with the concept of human rights as it is generally understood and practiced. How can ecological and livelihood rights be dealt with in relation to human rights, and what are problems with the universalisation of a particular interpretation or notion of human rights? And, how can human rights strategies be effectively pursued when major culprits are non-accountable non-state actors such as both funtamentalist groups and corporations? The presenters in the session all have extensive experience from working in either the womens' rights, human rights or environmental movements and will engage in provocative discussions on the future of human rights activism.

The World Social Forums and Beyond
Antonio Martins, Oduor Ongwen, Patrick Bond

An open-ended session on possible future directions of the World Social Forums and their role as conveners and mobilisers of civil society. In less than six years time, the World Social Forums have become the major convening space for civil society around the world, now gathering hundreds of thousand participants in the various fora taking place around the world. As the next global forum is being prepared, to be held in Nairobi, Kenya 20-25 January 2007, there are intense debates on whether the forum should remain mainly an open, uncoordinated space or whether it should consolidate and become a strategic platform with a clear and united agenda for action. In the session Oduor Ongwen, a key organiser of the Nairobi forum and Antonio Martins, from the WSF secretariat in Brazil will, among others, engage in discussions on where the Forum may, and should, be heading.

Reclaiming the State: Towards Genuine Participatory Democracy
Praful Bidwai, Hilary Wainwright

What are examples of participatory democracy that works on the ground and makes communities flourish and become empowered? What conditions make them possible? What difficulties do they face? What alternatives to the traditional dichotomy between the market and the public sector exist; what are innovative ways to collective solutions? And what are growing threats to democracy in the form of fundamentalism -- both market, political and religious kinds? This session tackles the current crisis of representative democracy by trying to answer all these questions, teasing out alternative routes forward. Praful Bidwai, author of the What Next article 'The convergence of fundamentalisms and new political closures: What Next in the struggle for pluralism?' will present and initiate discussions together with Hilary Wainwright, author of the book 'Reclaim the State: Experiments in Popular Democracy'.

Avoiding Others’ Mistakes: Another Development for Burma
David Taw, Khin Ohmar, Naing Aung, Tin-Tin Nyo, Lian Sakhong

A session building on the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation's project Another Development for Burma, which seeks to facilitate the Burmese democracy movement's engagement in longer-term development strategies and consideration of alternatives. What will happen when, eventually, the 45 years of repressive military dictatorship in Burma gives way to democracy? What challenges await when Burma becomes a main interest for business investments, aid agencies and other outside pressures? Is it possible for the Burmese people to formulate their own visions of development, learn from others' mistakes and be in charge of their own destiny? In the session several Burmese democracy movement leaders present the current situation in Burma, share their concerns and ideas for the future development of the country, and seek to reflect and engage in discussions with the audience.

Fighting Old Battles in a New Word: Civil Society Confronting Corporations
Annelies Allain, Esperanza Martínez, Michael Dorsey

A session that draws on a wide range of experiences from civil society activists on three continents, all working to confront corporate misbehavior. These includes the 25 year-long struggle by the International Baby Food Action Food Network (IBFAN) to monitor and fight unethical marketing of baby food; the Oilwatch network’s struggle with indigenous and local communities against oil exploration, and the environmental justice movement’s struggle for livelihood rights in poor and discriminated communities in both the United States and elsewhere. The session will examine how more successful, long-term strategizing and organising among civil society organisations can be achieved, both at the international level as well as on the local, grassroots level.